An Unsound Soul
by AngelG93
Summary: Medusa abducts Edward, injects him with Black Blood, and forces him to consume human souls until he loses his mind. Now believing he is Medusa's son, he soon ends up facing three meister-weapon teams from the DWMA... and Alphonse. Happy-ending readers, seek elsewhere. T for language, violence, gory descriptions, and kishin madness.
1. Confusion! Edward Elric in Death City?

_**An Unsound Soul**_

_**by AngelG93**_

* * *

A/N: First of all, I want to credit the idea for this story to **Gentsmaster3000**. She will likely continue to feed me ideas for this (thank you so much, dear!)

To clarify some things, I will be using general stuff from the dubbed _Soul Eater_ anime as my reference – it's all I know – but I won't adhere strictly to the plot itself, if you get what I mean. As for the _Fullmetal Alchemist_ aspect… you really only need to know who Ed and Al are, this being one of those "Ed gets pulled into the world of another anime" stories. Suffice it to say he hasn't even gone to Leore when this starts.

This is most definitely going to get _really_ creepy _really_ quickly (not much in this chapter, though), so I'm giving you fair warning. With that said, enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 1**

**Confusion! Edward Elric in Death City?**

Medusa examined her crystal ball with wide, slit-pupiled eyes and licked her lips hungrily.

"What is it, Lady Medusa?" asked Eruka, craning her neck to get a look at whatever had captured her colleague's attention so intently.

"Something very interesting has entered my field of vision," answered the serpentlike witch. "At certain times, magic connects with other worlds, whole separate universes. It would seem that I have been lucky enough to catch one of those opportunities. As a scientist, I can't help but be… curioussss." The final word lingered on her tongue with a hiss.

"So, what are you going to do about it?" Eruka persisted.

"Why, stupid girl, I'm going to reach my hand across this breach and see what I can grab – perhaps it'll be something that can kill my boredom." Without further ado, Medusa spoke an incantation over her crystal ball, and purplish light danced across the walls of her lair. A whooshing sound filled the chamber, so loud that Eruka pulled her pointed hat down over her ears to block it out.

Once the room had settled, the younger witch blinked in confusion. "Um, Lady Medusa? Nothing happened."

"Wrong," Medusa corrected, rising from her cushion and straightening her robe. "Something tantalizing has just crossed the gap between worlds." As she pulled up her hood to frame her sinister smile, she added, "Or, should I say… some_one_?"

* * *

"What… the… hell?"

Edward Elric had seen many strange things in his short life (and _no_, not _that_ kind of "short"), but this topped everything else. The crescent moon, instead of hanging serenely in the sky, grinned down at him wickedly with blood seeping out from in-between its bared teeth. It just… wasn't natural.

"I must be dreaming," the young alchemist reasoned. In order to test this theory, he pinched himself, hard, but this only produced a raised, tender spot on his left shoulder. "Okay…" he said to himself, trying to stay calm, "think, Ed. Think about how you got here."

As he racked his brains, the story slowly pieced together: he and Al had been on an assignment for Mustang, but – all of a sudden – something had grabbed him from behind and dragged him into a dark place full of strange voices. He might have thought it was the Portal of Truth, but his gut told him this was different somehow. In any case, before he knew it, he had ended up in his present location.

"Speaking of, that would be…?" He had no answer for his own question; nothing in his surroundings looked even remotely familiar. He was currently standing on the outskirts of the strangest city he'd ever laid eyes on. Taking into account the sparse illumination of the moon, Ed bet it looked even weirder in the daytime. Behind him lay a barren wasteland of windswept desert. "Well, I guess there's no going _that_ way." Left with little other choice, he ambled toward the nearest street. Before he got far, however, a blood-curdling laugh met his ears.

"Well, well, lookie here! A hapless human has wandered into my domain!"

Ed revolved on the spot, trying to locate the owner of the voice. "Who's there?" he called. "Show yourself!"

A hulking shape darted out of the shadows, grazing his face as it rushed past him. "Oh, me? I'm just a simple murderer with some time to kill. And now that you're here, I have a person to kill, too!" The stranger charged again, but this time, Ed was ready for him. He pressed his hands together, summoning his skill in alchemy to transmute a blade out of the metallic plating on his right forearm. "Oooh, shiny," cackled the psycho, slashing at Ed's weapon with a clawed hand. When the stranger attacked directly for the second time, his sharp nails caught on the edge of the blade, sending sparks off of the points of impact like they, too, were made of metal. The extra light gave Ed a chance to see his enemy's face. It was distorted almost beyond human recognition: eyes rolled back so far that the red veins stood out against the whites, a hooked nose twisted at a seemingly impossible angle, and a lipless mouth drawn back in a wide sneer.

"What the hell… are you?" Ed gasped, disgusted and shocked by what he had seen.

"That's an interesting question, boy, and it has an interesting answer to match!" Howling with deranged laughter, the villain stepped back a little to monologue. "I used to be a human, long ago, but then I began feeding on human souls. With their power inside of me, I'm well on my way to becoming a kishin, for sure!"

"A quiche-_what_-now?"

"It doesn't really matter if you understand," giggled the demonic being, "because you'll be dead in another second!"

The killer rushed toward him, and out of an inexplicable terror, Ed shut his eyes and slashed with his blade, not caring where it hit. After several beats of empty silence, the small blonde peeked through half-open eyelids. The strange psycho had disappeared, but where he had stood only a moment before now hovered a red orb with a comet-like tail dancing at the uppermost tip like a candle flame. Curious, Ed poked the glowing ball apprehensively, but it didn't seem to be dangerous. All the same, the sight reminded him of pictures he'd seen in books of what the Philosopher's Stone was supposed to look like. Was it possible that this was-

"Hello there."

The greeting caught him so off-guard that he nearly fell over. He spun around to find a woman watching him… from a broomstick… six feet off of the ground. This day just couldn't get any weirder, could it?

* * *

Medusa eyed the golden-haired boy like a vulture would a wounded animal: ripe for the taking. Still, she deemed it was best in this instance to play the card of "motherly concern." Arranging her features accordingly, she crooned, "Are you lost, little one?"

"I'm not little!" came the instant rebuttal.

The witch shook with mirth. "But you _are_ lost."

This made the boy's face turn crimson. "Well… yes."

"Can I point you in the right direction?"

"Thanks for the offer, but I don't even know what direction to take."

Medusa's eyes shimmered with phony tears. "Poor thing. This won't do at all. Why don't you come with me? My home isn't far off. You can stay there until we get this mess straightened out."

"Uh…"

She could see his mind working, debating, but under _no_ circumstances was she going to let this golden opportunity slip away from her. "It's dangerous out here at night, but you'll be quite safe with me, I assure you."

After a long moment of deliberation, the boy sighed, "Well, I don't know what else I _can_ do at this point. Thanks, ma'am. I appreciate it."

"It's my pleasure," she purred, swerving her broom in the direction of her lair. "By the way, my name is Medusa."

"Edward Elric," announced the boy, bowing to her in respect.

"Well, then, just follow me, Edward."

As soon as her face was hidden from his view, Medusa's usual smirk appeared. Her larger plans would have to take a back seat, but that hardly mattered. Asura had slept beneath the DWMA for hundreds of years; he could sleep a little longer. Right now, Edward Elric seemed like a much more entertaining investment.

* * *

A/N: NOES, ED! DON'T LISTEN TO MEDUSA! USE YOUR PEA-BRAIN! XD *shot*

Yeah, it's a short first chapter, but for this story, I would rather do shorter chapters (it means more frequent updates, for one thing ^_^)

Okay, so I was inspired by this awesome _LOTR/FMA_ fanfic called "Stray Child" by **junodog** to write stupidly ridiculous outtakes. Here goes!

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLO LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLTRO LL

**Eruka**: "Uh, Lady Medusa? Nothing happened."

**Medusa**: "Dammit! I hate it when I get those 'you failed casting the spell' notifications!"

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLO LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLTRO LL

**Eruka**: "So, what are you going to do about it?"

**Medusa**: *troll face* "LET'S EAT IT!"

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLO LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLTRO LL

**Ed**: "I must be dreaming." *pulls out top and twirls it on the ground – it continues to spin perfectly on the tip* "OMG! IT'S AN INCEPTION!"

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLO LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLTRO LL

**Random Murderer**: "I'm well on my way to becoming a kishin, for sure!"

**Ed**: "Dude, you're gonna turn into a quiche? Sweet, I'm starving!"

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLO LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLTRO LL

**Medusa**: "Hello there. Want some candy?"

**Ed**: "Hell, no, creeper lady! My mommy told me to never take candy from strangers!"

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLO LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLTRO LL

**Medusa**: "By the way, my name is Medusa."

**Ed**: "As in the evil, snake-headed, demon lady?"

*awkward pause*

**Medusa**: "Yeah, exactly like that."


	2. Medusa's Trick! A Sadistic Experiment?

_**An Unsound Soul**_

_**by AngelG93**_

* * *

A/N: Credit for the original idea goes to **Gentsmaster3000**.

Sorry for delivering such a short first chapter. This one has more meat.

Oh, and I've decided to make Ed twelve in this fanfic, so if he sounds more impressionable, innocent, or immature, that's why.

* * *

**Chapter 2**

**Medusa's Trick! A Sadistic Experiment?**

"So," asked Ed as he traipsed in Medusa's wake, "how exactly are you doing that?"

"Doing what?" she simpered.

"Floating like that. It shouldn't be possible."

"Well, of course it's possible, silly. I'm a witch."

Ed blinked in confusion. "You're serious?" When Medusa continued to smile at him, he furrowed his brow skeptically. "But that can't be. I'm a scientist; magic isn't supposed to exist."

"Maybe not where _you're_ from, but it's quite prevalent here."

Ed glanced around, taking in the absurdity of the entire area and shrugged. "If you say so. At this point, I might be willing to believe just about anything."

His words seemed to excite Medusa. "That's the spirit," she sad. "It's important to be open-minded in life. For instance, even though I'm a witch, I'm _also_ a _scientific_ researcher. That way, I can learn from both practices and gain the most knowledge."

"That makes sense, I guess," muttered Ed. _So, maybe magic is what brought me here, _he thought.

After a few minutes, the two reached the entrance of Medusa's underground home. The witch dismounted from her broom and led the way inside, Ed following wordlessly.

"Welcome back, Lady Medusa," greeted a scrawny, plain girl with long silver hair, a polka-dotted dress, and the most absurd-looking hat Ed had ever seen. "Oh," she added when catching sight of him, "so _that's_ why you went out."

"Why, yes," said Medusa, and something about her tone communicated that the girl should have held her tongue. "I wasn't about to leave a lost little boy out in the street at night."

"I'm _not_ little," Ed grumbled.

Medusa turned to throw him a glittering smile. "Of course you aren't, dear. My mistake." She then continued speaking to the skinny girl, "Eruka, Edward here is a scientist, so I'd love to show him our… special project."

Eruka looked confused for a moment, but then comprehension dawned on her face. "_Oh_… of course, Lady Medusa. Right away." In another moment, she had darted off down a hallway. Ed found her gait quite odd; it almost gave the impression that she was hopping, the way a frog would.

"What kind of project is it?" he asked Medusa, pulling off his red coat and folding it neatly.

"I suppose it would be considered chemical research. I've always been fascinated by experimenting with unusual substances."

"Really?" cried Ed, beaming. "Then we have that in common. I'm an alchemist."

To his surprise, Medusa swopped down on him, cupping his face in her hands and giggling, "Oh, you are simply the cutest thing! I just want to keep you, you _darling_ boy." Suddenly, however, her smile took on an eerie air. "In fact… I think I will." She glanced toward the front door, and Ed heard a lock click shut.

"Wh… what did you do that for?" he asked timidly.

"Well, I didn't want to cause a scene in the city, so I convinced you to come along willingly, quietly."

Ed flinched. "You… you mean you kidnapped me?"

The witch tapped his nose teasingly. "Why else would I bring you to this world in the first place if not to have you for my own?"

Ed pulled away from her, his golden eyes blazing. "So, _you're_ the one? _You_ dragged me to this godforsaken place? Damn you, lady!"

Before he could run, Medusa grabbed him by the wrists. "Such a dirty mouth," she chided. "Didn't your mother teach you any manners?"

"She died before she got the chance!" He tried to be brave when he mentioned his mother's absence so bluntly, but it still hurt him inside to think about her. After all, it had only been a little more than a year since he and Al had tried to bring her back.

Medusa's face filled with concern. "Why, that's simply dreadful, for a boy your age to have no mother."

"What's it to you?" Ed snapped, trying to tug his arms free of her grip. "Lemme go! Send me back! I want to go home!"

"Oh, I'm afraid it's too late for that."

Ed froze, gazing up at the witch. "What?"

"The window between worlds has darkened, and there's no telling when it will reappear. There's nowhere for you to go."

The boy slumped to the floor, trembling from head to toe. "But _that_ means… my little brother Al will be all alone. You have to let me go; he needs me."

"But I'm not going to let you go, not after all the trouble I went through to acquire you. I told you that I love to experiment with unusual substances, but, truthfully, I should have said I love to experiment _on_ unusual _specimens_… unusual _people_. And now, I have the perfect opportunity to further my research."

These words motivated Ed to renew his struggles. Unfortunately, Medusa only laughed at his futile attempts. "Oh, don't be frightened. I'm sure you'll find it an enlightening experience. I consider myself to be an excellent teacher, a master molder of young minds like yours."

"Find some other test subject!" Ed yelled, pulling fruitlessly. "Just leave me alone!"

At that moment, Eruka returned with a corked beaker full of a black liquid and an empty syringe. "Here you are, Lady Medusa," she said with a ribbit-like tremor. "I didn't know if you'd need more than this, but-"

"This will do splendidly. Well done, Eruka." Medusa briefly patted the girl on the head before snatching the implements away from her. In order to do this, however, she was forced to let go of Ed's left hand. Seizing his opportunity, Ed pressed his palms together. A small column shot up from where he touched the floor, bumping Medusa's other hand so he could slip free. Though the witch was startled by this development, she quickly regained her composure.

"A good effort," she complimented, "but still not enough." Before Ed had taken five steps, she snapped her fingers, and arrow-headed ropes wrapped around his ankles and wrists. A metal chair materialized, and the magic cords dragged the flailing boy onto the hard seat, looping his arms over the low back and fastening each of his limbs to a separate chair leg. Ed strained against his bonds as Medusa approached, her smile widening as she filled the syringe with the mysterious liquid.

"Please, let me go!" the boy begged.

"And spoil my fun? No, I don't think so." She squirted a tiny stream of the liquid from the needle to test its efficiency.

"What is that stuff? What's it do?"

"I call it Black Blood, and as for what it does… you'll soon get to see for yourself." After unfastening the metal clasp of his jacket, her black-nailed fingers traced a faint line down his neck until they stopped directly over his jugular. "Here we are." Holding him still with one hand, she punctured his skin, injecting the liquid directly into his vein.

Ed expected something drastically horrible to happen, but it was over before he knew it. Medusa tossed Eruka the now-drained syringe and gave her instructions to "fetch the supply stock" before conjuring a clipboard and pen from thin air. Perching on the tail-like arrow that draped from the back of her robe, she clicked the pen and smiled at Ed. "Now, dear, why don't you tell me how you feel?"

For several long moments, he could think of nothing to say. Then, an unpleasant bubbling surged in his gut, as if his insides were boiling. Before he could try to explain it, he coughed violently, and hot blood poured from his mouth onto the stone floor.

"Ah, I see," Medusa noted, scribbling something onto her clipboard. "The Black Blood likes you, so much so that it's displacing your human blood. Fascinating."

Ed continued to vomit, staining the ground a deep red. He'd seen plenty of his own blood before, but not like _this_; he hadn't even known his small body could contain so much of the rich, sticky liquid. Again, and again, the vital resource pumped out of him, scalding his throat on its way up. Long after Ed was sure he should have died from exsanguination, the convulsions ceased. He had no more blood to expunge, and yet his body was still functioning normally – how could that be?

"Excellent," said Medusa, glowing with excitement. She descended from her makeshift seat, disposed of the mess of rejected blood with a wave of her hand, and crouched down beside her victim. Ed flinched at her approach, but all she did was wipe the remaining gore from his chapped mouth. Her touch was surprisingly tender, that of a caring mother tending to her messy-faced child. The act confused Ed to no end: one second, she was making him puke out his innards, and the next, she was trying to play "Mom"? This woman made no sense.

"G… get away," said Ed feebly, jerking his head away from her. The sharp movement, however, sent his sense of balance off-kilter. The room suddenly felt like it was standing on its head, or maybe its side, Ed couldn't tell. He had forgotten which way was up to begin with.

"Oh? Is it starting already?" Medusa asked, pulling back Ed's eyelids to get a better look at him.

"Is… what… starting?"

The witch lifted up a few strands of his bangs as she whispered in his ear, "Why, the madness, dear."

"Madne… what madness?"

"The Black Blood grants considerable power to its host… at the cost of sanity."

"You mean… I'm going to lose my mind?"

Medusa laughed lightly. "My dear, who said anything about _losing_ anything? Madness is something to be gained – it broadens your horizons." She tilted her head to once side as she prompted, "Do you know why?"

Ed shook his head wordlessly, and the simple motion felt as disorienting as rolling down a steep hill on his side. Horizontal and vertical had no more meaning, no more boundaries.

"Madness erases your fear," Medusa explained. "Edward, wouldn't you like to not be afraid of _anything_?"

Ed thought about that. He had been scared when his mom had died, and even more scared when he and Al had broken the taboo and attempted Human Transmutation… when everything had gone wrong. What would it be like, not to feel fear? To Ed, it sounded… well, crazy. Nevertheless, when he gazed up into Medusa's serpentine eyes, he slowly nodded.

The witch gave him a reassuring smile. "Then, you have nothing to worry about."

Through his kaleidoscopic field of vision, Ed saw Eruka trot back into view, rolling a cart full of sealed containers. "Here are the supplies, Lady Medusa. Is there anything else?"

"For now, no. Feel free to hop out and amuse yourself." Once Eruka had vanished once again, Medusa peeled off the lid of one of the boxes. Whatever was inside glowed with a light blue aura.

"What's in there?" Ed asked groggily.

Medusa removed from the container a pulsating azure sphere. "This? It might be hard for an entirely _scientific_ mind like yours to grasp, but this is a human soul."

"And what… what are you going to do with it?"

The witch stood over him, her face masked in shadow except for her cruel smile. "Open up." She flicked two fingers, and tiny cords hooked around Ed's lower jaw, prying open his mouth. Before he could do much more than cry out, Medusa forced the orb down his throat. Despite his horror at what was happening, he found the taste… nourishing. Left with the choice to swallow or choke, Ed defaulted to the former. He shuddered as he felt its pressure on his esophagus all the way down to his stomach.

"Good boy," Medusa praised, ruffling his hair. "Let's try another."

Ed shook his head vehemently, being unable to speak with his mouth held open, but his protests were in vain. Medusa thrust a second, a third, a fourth soul inside him. When the count reached ten, Ed began to scream, begging as best he could for her to stop.

"You have nothing to fear," Medusa told him as she pressed another orb into his mouth. "Savor it. _Enjoy_ it."

_How could anyone enjoy this?_ Ed thought. This was Hell, and Medusa was his appointed tormentor. His punishment for trying to bring back the dead had finally come to fruition – as each soul slid down his throat, he was reminded of the soul he couldn't recreate, the soul of his mother that was forever lost to him. It was such a depressing realization that tears gathered in the corners of his eyes. When one glistening drop finally coursed down his cheek, Medusa wiped it away.

"No need for that," she said soothingly. "You're doing very well."

* * *

The procedure stretched on and on. Eventually, he had trouble remembering what the word "time" even _meant_. How long had he been in this strange world? A day? A month? If felt as if he had always been here, in this chair, with Medusa force-feeding him human life. His body didn't seem like his own anymore, as if the souls inside of him were changing it into something else.

There were times when Medusa let him rest, but those moments were by far the worst. Alone in the dark, his mind played cruel tricks on him, showing him faces he felt should be familiar, but whose names he couldn't recall. There was a smiling girl with light blonde hair, a dark-haired main with a charismatic smirk, and a large suit of armor with strangely kind eyes. Every time he pictured them, the fear he had of them mounted. Who were these people? They wouldn't go away. _Make them go away_, he begged. _I want to forget. Just let me forget everything._

Medusa said feeding would help him forget, so he obeyed, accepting the nourishment with less and less resistance. The unwanted memories grew fainter and fainter, until they were swallowed by the darkness altogether. Finally, the moment came when he looked blankly at Medusa and whimpered, "What… what's my name? I can't remember – I can't remember anything."

She smiled at him with such warmth and sympathy that his heart leapt in his chest. He wanted her to comfort him, to tell him everything would be all right. She descended upon him, enfolding him in her arms.

"Welcome back, my precious boy."

"B… back?"

"Yes. You've been so very sick, but you're going to be fine." The ropes which had bound him slithered away, and, for the first time in his memory, he could move around. Instinctively, he brought his arms forward… and that's when he saw it.

"Aaagh!" The sight frightened him so much that he fell backward out of the chair. He scrambled away, but the source of his terror followed him. It was metal, a metal arm that was connected to his right shoulder. It wasn't supposed to be there. He had to get rid of it.

"Calm down," said Medusa, approaching him as one would a spooked animal.

"What… what is this thing? Why is it a part of me? Get it off me!"

"I will, but not yet. You aren't strong enough."

"Get it off!" he shrieked, flailing the limb as if he could remove it by shaking hard enough.

Medusa caught his wrist and laid the arm gently by his side. "Enough of that. You're safe now. Nothing can hurt you here."

"I don't know where I am! I don't know _who_ I am! I'm just… just so scared!" Unable to bear it any longer, he burst into tears, sobbing with such force that he half-choked on his own gasps.

Medusa cradled him in her arms, hushing him and stroking his hair tenderly. "Oh, my poor little darling, I'm sure you are. Don't worry. _Mother's_ here to protect you."

* * *

A/N: Medusa is such an expert in pseudo-motherly child abuse, isn't she? T.T Creeper… Her observation methods remind me of Count Rugen from _The Princess Bride_. Anyone else getting that vibe?

**OUTAKES TIME!**

**Ed**: "I'm _not_ little."

**Medusa**: *face of doom* "YES, YOU ARE. GET OVER IT."

TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALA TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALAAAAAAAAAAAA

**Medusa**: Madness erases your fear. Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate; hate… leads to suffering. Therefore, madness is good for you.

**Ed**: That's crazy.

**Medusa**: _Now_ you're getting the idea! :D


	3. Tabula Rasa! Crona Gets a Brother?

_**An Unsound Soul**_

_**by AngelG93**_

* * *

A/N: Now, things are starting to get interesting, I hope. I know the chapters are still short compared to my _HP_/_FMA_ fanfic, _Nowhere is Safe_, but… it's kind of relaxing to write shorter chapters. It also builds suspense more rapidly.

Oh, BTW, I write Crona as a boy. That's the easiest way for me to think of him (otherwise, the Maka-Crona relationship just gets… _weird_…)

**EDIT: I changed my mind! Ed's twelve in this story. After all, I'm going for as impressionable as possible here…**

REVIEW RESPONSE TIME:

**Breyannia**: _Soul Eater_ is one of my all-time favorites. I hope you enjoy watching/reading it!

* * *

**Chapter 3**

**Tabula Rasa! Crona Gets a Brother?**

"This is, by far, the _coolest_ thing that has ever happened to us," Soul Evans grinned. He and Maka had certainly been shocked when they'd encountered a tall suit of armor running around the streets, calling the name of "Ed" at the top of his voice. Upon approaching him, they had been even _more_ shocked when the stranger introduced himself as an eleven-year-old boy named Alphonse Elric. In the end, they had brought the newcomer back to their apartment, where he now sat on the couch, awkwardly twiddling his thumbs.

"Um," he said in a echoing, metallic voice, "I'm flattered and all, but… I'm really not that impressive."

"What're you talking about?" Soul immediately countered. "That armor is the coolest thing ever!"

"Soul," Maka cut in, "you're wrong." She gripped the edge of her skirt, her face filled with sorrow. "It's not cool at all."

"What do you mean?"

Maka looked Alphonse directly in the face. "You don't have a body inside that armor, do you? Just your soul."

"How… how did you know that?" Al gasped.

"I'm a meister," Maka said calmly. "I can see directly into people's souls."

"She's probably the best in our class at doing it," Soul complimented, patting his partner on the shoulder. "Unless you count Mr. Symmetry."

"Quit smooth-talking, Soul. My idiot father must be wearing off on you."

"That old man? Not likely. I'm way cooler than him, for sure."

"Now _that_ we can agree on."

"Um, excuse me?" The meister-weapon team turned in unison toward Alphonse in response to his question.

"Yeah, Alphonse?" replied Maka kindly.

"Just Al is fine, but… I don't think I can stay here very long."

"Why not?" Soul demanded.

"I have to find my brother. Something brought him here, and I barely managed to grab hold of it, which is how I ended up here in… uh, what is this place called again?"

"Death City," answered Maka.

"Well, what's this brother of yours look like?" Soul pondered. "We can help you look for him, can't we, Maka?"

The girl nodded emphatically, sending her pigtails flying. "Of course. Let's get to it."

Al smiled on the inside. Even though they were practically strangers to him, Maka and Soul were willing to help him. Moments like this were what always reminded Al to look for the best in people.

_Hang on, Brother_. _I'm on my way_.

* * *

Crona woke to a disquieting surprise. There was someone else in his room: a boy of about twelve with golden hair and two limbs of steel. The child was fast asleep, his small chest rising and falling peacefully. Despite the serenity of this image, Crona yelped and scurried to the opposite side of the room.

"Wh… who is that?" he stammered. As if in response to this, the Demon Sword Ragnarok grew out of his back. Once the Black Blood weapon had gotten a good look at the sleeping boy, it shrugged.

"Meh, I dunno. Who cares, anyway?"

"I've never had someone in my room like this. I don't know how to deal with it."

"Well, why don't we go ask Lady Medusa? I'm sure she can tell us."

"Tell you what?"

Crona stiffened as he heard his mother's voice and turned to see the witch framed dramatically in the doorway. His teeth chattered as he said, "L… La… Lady Medusa. I… I was just…"

"Honestly," Ragnarok chided, "you're completely hopeless, Crona." He then directed his attention to Medusa. "We were just wondering who the new kid is, that's all."

"Oh? I see." Her voice seemed to rouse the child; he slowly opened his eyes, which were just as brilliantly golden as his hair. When he caught sight of Medusa, he immediately sat up. She extended her arms toward him, and he gratefully ran into their ring of warmth.

"Good morning, darling," she greeted. "Are you feeling better?"

"Yes, mother," said the boy. "I think so, at least."

_Mother_? Crona puzzled. _That can't be… Lady Medusa is _my_ mother, not anyone else's… right?_

"Crona," said Medusa, "Don't look so surprised. Surely you remember your own little brother?"

"Little… brother? But, I don't have a-"

One harsh look from his mother silenced him; she obviously intended for Crona to play along with this ruse. Once she was sure that Crona understood, Medusa motioned for him to approach. The strange boy looked up at Crona with wide, curious eyes. At length, he grinned. "Hey there, big Brother. It's funny; since I don't remember anything, it's like we're meeting for the first time, isn't it?"

Crona managed a nervous chuckle. "Uh, yeah… I guess it is."

"Well, then," said Medusa, clapping her hands in delight and turning first toward the unknown child, "we must redo official introductions between you two, mustn't we? As you've already figured out, this is your big brother, Crona." She then flashed her birth son a devilish grin. "Crona, this is your little brother, Rasa."

* * *

Rasa… it was strange how his own name sounded so… foreign to him. Medusa said this was only natural, and that it would all come back to him with time, but still he felt reluctant, uncertain. But, what reason could he possibly have to doubt his own mother? She had saved him from those false memories, freed him from their illusive chains. And yet, there were still moments where he would get confused. Once, he mistakenly called Crona "Alphonse"; another time, Medusa found him crying because he had thought that his mother was dead. He knew these erroneous memories were lies, but they continued to haunt him nonetheless.

"Mother?" he asked one evening as Medusa was brushing his hair. "What happened to me? Why did I forget about you, and Crona, and everything before?"

His mother said nothing as her nimble fingers ran along the back of his head, partitioning the cascade of gold into three groups and weaving them into a simple braid. She swiveled the stool on which he sat so that he faced her before she finally spoke. "It was the DWMA, the Death-Weapon-Meister-Academy. They took you away from me, and one of their meisters, Franken Stein, sealed away your power, along with your true memories, and implanted those lies in your mind."

"Sealed… my power?"

"That's right. You wondered why your arm and leg are different, why they seem so wrong. That's where your abilities as a weapon are buried."

"A weapon?" he asked confusedly.

"Yes. Crona is a meister, and Ragnarok is _his_ weapon. But, you…" she held his face in her hands, gazing at him with warmth and pride, "my precious Rasa, you're special. You are one of the few weapons who needs no meister, and to the DWMA, that makes you _especially_ dangerous. That's why they did this to you."

"But you'll be able to fix me, right, Mother? You can do anything!"

Medusa beamed at him. "Of course I can. Once you're strong enough, I'll be able to release your power." She rose and retrieved a large bowl filled with glowing blue orbs. "And in order for you to get stronger, you need to keep eating; understand?"

Rasa nodded and dutifully opened his mouth. He could, of course, have eaten the souls without any aid, but he preferred it when Medusa fed him. He had gotten used to the succulent sensation of life sliding down his throat, so much so that he found himself craving more after the bowl was empty. When he asked, his mother gladly presented seconds, even thirds.

"What an appetite you have, my little man," she giggled playfully, popping yet another soul into his mouth like a piece of candy. "At this rate, you'll be back at full strength in no time."

_"My little man…"_ He remembered hearing that phrase. That's right; his mother had said it many times before. Comforted by the truth of that one memory, however small, he smiled at Medusa, feeling content for the first time he could remember.

* * *

The child who had once been Edward Elric was sleeping deeply. Medusa brushed an affectionate hand along one side of his face before soundlessly slithering from the room, locking the door behind her. Everything was going perfectly. This boy would be of considerable use to her once she had transformed him into a death weapon. Perhaps he would even surpass Crona and become a kishin first; that would teach her whiny brat to complain about things he didn't "know how to deal with."

"Lady Medusa!" called Eruka, hopping up to her colleague excitedly. "You wanted to see me?"

"Keep your voice down," commanded the senior witch. "But, yes, I did. Come."

The two women returned to the main foyer, where Medusa settled herself on a plump cushion and rested her chin atop her interlaced fingers.

"So?" Eruka asked. "How are things going with that boy?"

"A potter couldn't ask for finer clay. I only need one more thing to complete my masterpiece… and it's something you can give me, Eruka. After this, I won't require your services any longer."

"You mean I'll be free? Of course! You know I'd do anything for that!"

"Good. Thank you, Eruka." Without a second's hesitation, Medusa slashed Eruka with a Vector Arrow, slicing clean through her. "Thank you _very much_," she hissed. Eruka's horror showed for one long moment before her body snapped in two. The disfigured halves fell to the floor, soaking up the blood that poured from the wound. From the shell rose a glowing sphere, purple in color. Medusa, stepping lightly over the mangled corpse of her former colleague, plucked the soul from where it hovered and examined it closely. Not the most impressive, but it would have to do. The child would make up for it with his own strength.

* * *

Rasa was the first to wake the next morning. Having nothing much to do until his mother would come unlock the door, he sat cross-legged against a wall, comparing his two hands. They really did look so very different; how could this piece of metal really be his arm? Wondering if the hands were exactly the same proportions, Rasa touched his palms together. Immediately, something _clicked_ in his brain, something… familiar, but he couldn't think why this would be. As he tried to remember, he pressed his hands against the floor so he could lean his weight on them. To his surprise, however, sparks of energy crackled to life, and the stone blocks under his hands morphed, rising and falling until they looked like a petrified ocean current.

"Whoa! How did that…?" Suddenly, he answered his own question with an idea. _What if…?_ He quickly clapped his hands, and the sensation repeated. This time, he thought about shaping the stone into a tower as he touched the floor. As if responding to his wishes, the slabs of rock obeyed, spiraling upward until they formed a foot-tall cone.

"Crona!" Rasa cried delightedly. "Big brother, look at this!"

"…mnngh…" Crona moaned, lazily opening one eye. "W… what izzit, Rasa?"

"Look at what I can do!" With that, he demonstrated his newfound ability once again. Crona jolted awake when the small lightning storm erupted around the reaction Rasa was causing. Even Ragnarok came out to watch.

"What the hell?" the Demon Sword gaped. "How's he doin' that, Crona?"

"How am I supposed to know? I don't even know how I'm supposed to deal with something like this." Trying to master his fear, Crona asked, "Um, Rasa? Does Lady Medusa know you can do this?"

"Well, of course she does. She must. Mother knows everything."

The sparks faded to reveal a miniature-scaled building; it had four pillars – one at each corner – and a small section at the middle that was built higher than the rest, like the innermost keep of a great castle.

"What is that?" pointed Crona, cautiously edging closer to the makeshift sculpture.

Rasa furrowed his brow. "I… I'm not sure. The image just came to me, as if it was somewhere I've been before, but I can't… remember."

At that moment, the bolt clicked back, and Medusa opened the door. She quickly noticed Rasa's remodeling of the floor, and for a moment, she seemed disconcerted.

"Mother?" Rasa asked at once. "What is it? Did I do something wrong?"

She smiled reassuringly. "No, dear. I just didn't think you'd remember how to use magic so quickly."

"Uh, Lady Medusa," Ragnarok questioned, "I know what magic looks like, and that didn't seem to-" The Demon Sword stopped short when Medusa looked directly at it, ducking behind Crona as if the witch's gaze would cause it to spontaneously combust. "Never mind."

"Rasa," said Medusa, holding out her hand for his, "Come now. It's time for me to fix you."

He obeyed at once, slipping the cursed metal hand into his mother's grasp and following her from the room. Crona did not accompany them; he seemed more than content to remain on his bed with his face hidden in a pillow.

When they reached the main chamber, Rasa spotted a magical array drawn on the floor. "What's that for?"

"It will help me unseal your power; that's all." She led him to the center of the diagram before continuing, "Now, close your eyes and hold out your hands, and no peeking."

He did so, and, once a few moments of dark silence had passed, he felt the weight of something in his hands.

"You can look now."

Rasa gazed at the object he had been given. It was a soul, judging by the shape, but it seemed… bigger somehow, and it was purple instead of blue.

"Eat that," Medusa instructed.

He lifted the orb to his mouth and, after several tries, managed to fit it inside. The very possibility of _swallowing_ something this size seemed impossible, but his throat widened to receive the gift, carrying the soul down smoothly. Almost immediately, he felt strange all over. His stomach began to burn, and he bent double from the suddenness of the pain. Medusa was at his side in an instant, stroking his back and assuring him that he would be all right.

"Why does it hurt so much?" he whimpered.

"Fixing something broken always hurts. Now, let me see your arm." She clasped the metal limb and whispered an incantation, twirling two fingers around it. The steel shimmered until it receded altogether, leaving flesh in its stead. Where her black nails traced, a tattoo like the one she bore on each arm appeared, reaching from his wrist up to his shoulder like a coiled snake.

Medusa then repeated this process with his left leg, and, all the while, Rasa felt other things changing, too. Each of his teeth sharpened to a fine point, and his senses heightened considerably. The troublesome memories that had weighed him down evaporated as quickly and easily as a bad dream, and a newborn wildness flowed through him, an urge to tear something apart for the fun of it, to kill and maim just because he _could_. Before he knew it, this insane thrill bubbled out of him in the form of laughter, maniacal cackles that echoed off the stone surfaces of the hall. When his mirth finally subsided, he beamed at Medusa and whispered in a singsong voice, "Thank you, Mother. I feel _much_ better now."

* * *

Alphonse was close to despair. For more days than he could keep record of, he had been scouring the entire area of Death City in his search for Ed. Where could that brother of his have run off to? It wasn't like him to just vanish. Soul and Maka helped him look when they could – they had even involved some of their other friends from their school, the Death-Weapon-Meister-Academy – but so far, all of their efforts had been fruitless. At the moment, Al sat on the low stone rim of a fountain, contemplating what to do. What if he never found his brother? What if-

"No," Al admonished himself, going so far as to smack the sides of his helmet. "Don't even think that. Brother's alive; he has to be, and I'm going to find him, no matter what."

"Al!" the voice calling his name was Soul's, and soon enough, the white-haired boy ran up to him, breathing so heavily that he had to take a moment before he could speak clearly.

"What is it?" Al pressed.

"Lo… Lord Death… wants to… see you," panted Soul, only managing a few words at a time.

"Your headmaster? He wants to see _me_? Why?"

"I dunno. He just asked Maka or me to bring you to his audience chamber _now_. Maybe… maybe he's found a trace of your brother."

Al's soul leapt at that prospect. He stood eagerly, nodding to Soul. "Lead the way."

* * *

A/N: Yay, Alphonse has joined the party! I just can't seem to write a story about Ed without including Al; he is, after all, the most important person in Ed's life.

Rasa is pronounced "Rah-zah". I took it from the well-known phrase used in this chapter title, "tabula rasa" – or "blank slate." The "rasa" part roughly translates to "blank" (NERD MOMENT: it literally means "scraped"), so it made sense as a name Medusa could give Ed.

Did you catch the Trisha reference? "My little man" is one of her terms of endearment for Ed in both anime. Oh, and the building Rasa!Ed transmuted is supposed to be Central Command.

I did research the method by which Arachne created death weapons to get the general idea. She combined a witch's soul, a human soul, and an inanimate object (the weapon itself) to make each death weapon. So, Eruka's soul + Ed's soul + all the other human souls + automail (which, through alchemy, is definitely a weapon) = Rasa the death weapon/kishin egg. Since Arachne and Medusa are sisters, I figured the snake would have stolen some of the spider's secrets about death weapon making.

I hope Rasa!Ed doesn't seem OOC. In the "nurture vs. nature" argument, I tend to side with nurture, so my mind got working, thinking about the "nurture" aspects that define Ed as who he is: Hohenheim leaving, Trisha dying, the Human Transmutation, joining the military, etc. If all of those memories were suddenly _gone_, I would present the claim that he _could_ become an entirely different person given the right conditions. (Really rambling now) I have a thirteen-year-old brother who's on the small side, and he's adorably devoted to our wonderful mum (yes, I call her "mum" even though I'm not British, strictly speaking), so I don't think making Rasa!Ed like that with Medusa sounds too immature. Remember that Ed is an oddity in the maturity spectrum; most twelve-year-olds are nowhere near his level of self-sufficiency and intelligence. This might be stretching it, but I wouldn't be surprised if a small part of Ed longs for the trusting innocence of childhood, and Medusa gives him that chance. Okay, the rambling explanation is done now *shot*

**OUTAKES TIME**:

**Rasa**: "What happened to me? Why did I forget about you, and Crona, and everything before?"

**Medusa**: "Because you're not really my son. You're a random little boy that I stole from another universe and brainwashed into following me like a lost puppy."

**Rasa**: O^O *whimper*

TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALA TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALAAAAAAAAAAAA

**Rasa**: "Mother? What is it? Did I do something wrong?"

**Medusa**: "OH DAMN! YOU'VE REMEMBERED HOW TO DO ALCHEMY! ALL OF MY BRAINWASHING HAS BEEN IN VAIN!"

**Crona**: "I just don't know how do deal with that…"

TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALA TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALAAAAAAAAAAAA

Al: "Your headmaster? He wants to see _me_? Why?"

Soul: *stone-faced* "HE WANTS TO DISSECT YOU."


	4. Slaughter in Snow! The Brothers Team Up?

_**An Unsound Soul**_

_**by AngelG93**_

* * *

A/N: Okay… I feel I should warn you _now_… if you're here for a happy ending, you're in the wrong place. Just saying…

* * *

**Chapter 4**

**Slaughter in the Snow! The Brothers Team Up?**

Lord Death definitely wasn't what Al was expecting. Watching the black-robed, skull-masked figure hop around and greet everyone in a cheery voice almost made him want to laugh, but he reminded himself that his _own_ appearance was misleading.

"I'm so glad you could make it," cried Lord Death, shaking Al's hand vigorously. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Uh… likewise, sir," Al responded politely.

"So, what's all this about, Lord Death?" Soul asked, looking a little impatient.

"Have you found out anything about Al's brother?" added Maka hopefully.

"Weeeeeeeeeeeeell..." the Grim Reaper stretched the word out awkwardly before finally admitting, "no."

All three children's shoulders sagged with disappointment.

"But," Lord Death interjected, desperately trying to raise their spirits, "I received notification that the Demon Swordsman has been spotted."

"He has?" Maka gasped. "Let's get going! He's gonna pay for hurting Soul!"

She charged toward the long hallway that led out of the Death Room, but was stopped by a redheaded man with a strange, cross-shaped tie.

"Whoa, hold it, Maka," he said nervously. "You can't just storm out without knowing where you're going."

"For once, your old man's right," Soul agreed. The man Al assumed must be Maka's father looked quite traumatized by the way Soul said "old man," sliding down to the floor in a puddle of dejection. Al couldn't help but feel a little sorry for the cold treatment the man was receiving from his daughter and her friend.

"Oh, stop it, Papa," Maka chided. "It's just an expression." She then spun to face Lord Death. "Okay, then. Where is Crona?"

"In Siberia, actually. He was seen heading for an isolated village, so it doesn't take much to guess what he's up to."

"Collecting human souls," answered Soul, gritting his pointed teeth angrily. "_Damn_ him."

"So, let's go!" Maka suggested.

"Not yet," urged Lord Death. "We will not repeat the mistake of sending a single team after the Demon Swordsman. I'm sending two other teams with you, so you need to all leave together."

"Two other teams?" repeated Maka. "Who?"

"WHO DO YOU THINK?" boomed an energetic young voice. A boy with bright blue hair suddenly dropped from out of nowhere, leaving a small crater in the floor where he landed. "FOR A JOB LIKE THIS, YOU'D BE CRAZY NOT TO LET THE BIGGEST MAN AROUND IN ON IT! HA-HA-HA-HA!"

"Please, Black Star," begged Tsubaki, trailing after her partner, "use an inside voice."

"So you guys are coming with us?" grinned Soul. "Sweet!"

"Then," Al put in, "do you think the other team is-"

"Yay! We're going on a mission!" sang Patty Thompson as she skipped along the hallway toward the main dais.

"Wait up, Patty," called her sister, Liz. "How do you always have so much energy?"

"Girls, do _try_ and behave yourselves," said Death the Kid in an authoritative tone as he brought up the rear of the group. When the stripe-clad young man noticed Alphonse, his eyes shimmered with awe.

"Oh, God, Kid," Soul groaned. "Not _again_…"

"I can't help myself," Kid sighed. "The perfect symmetry of Alphonse's armor is worthy of a monument! It's simply divine! It's-"

"But, he's got that symbol painted on his left shoulder and not on his right."

Kid stopped mid-breath, horrified by what Soul had just pointed out. He whipped out a cloth, and a demonic gleam emanated from his yellow eyes. "I WILL NOT ALLOW SUCH A FLAW TO DISFIGURE PERFECTION! I'M WIPING IT OFF RIGHT NOW!"

Only Lord Death dealing a minor Reaper Chop to his son's head kept the junior Grim Reaper from rubbing Al's shoulder raw. "Honestly, everyone, we need to focus here. Time is of the essence."

"YEAH," Black Star thundered, beating his chest importantly. "JUST GIVE US THE WORD, LORD DEATH, AND WE'LL BE OFF QUICKER THAN YOU CAN SAY 'BLACK STAR'!"

"Um, excuse me," said Al, raising his hand, "If this isn't about my brother, then, why am I even here?"

"Oh, that." Lord Death faced Al and tilted his head comically as he spoke, "Behind the Demon Swordsman is a powerful witch. Though we don't know much about her, I thought it might be worth looking into to see if she's in any way connected with you and your brother being here."

"So, I should go to Siberia, too?"

"Yes, I think that's for the best. All right, everyone! Off you go! Good luck!"

The students bowed to Lord Death before departing. As Maka passed her father, he placed a hand on her shoulder and told her, "Maka, if things get tough, you can rest assured that Stein and I will come to your rescue."

"Yeah, thanks," answered Maka in a flat, uninterested voice, brushing off his hand and following her partner. Al watched this exchange with regret; he wished Maka would better appreciate her dad. After all, he and Ed had learned the hard way not to take their parents for granted.

* * *

Crona shivered, not from the Russian cold, but from the memory of his mother's words before she had sent him on this assignment: "If anything happens to Rasa, I'll be _very_ cross with you, Crona."

_She might make Ragnarok wake me up every hour during the night, and then I'll get dark circles under my eyes. I don't know how to deal with the dark circles_. Peering around the edge of his fur-lined hood, Crona looked back at the boy who was unknowingly living a lie. Despite their considerable difference in height, Rasa was stubbornly trying to keep up with him. Crona had caught a few brief glimpses of his "little brother" preparing for the mission, but since Medusa had been instructing him, Crona hadn't stuck around to watch. Did his mother really think Rasa was capable of holding his own? What if the DWMA showed up? He didn't even want to _think_ about trying to handle _that_ on top of everything else.

"Wait up, Brother!" Rasa huffed as he ran to catch up with Crona. "Not so fast!"

"But, we can't stop," the other called back. "If we don't get there soon, my toes are going to freeze, and I don't think I can deal with frozen toes right now."

With added effort, the younger boy managed to reach the heels of the elder. "Crona?"

"What is it?"

"Why do you always call Mother 'Lady Medusa'?"

"That's what she wanted me to call her… so I did. I… I wouldn't know how to handle calling her 'Mother'."

"Does that mean she doesn't like you as much as me?"

Crona didn't even pause in his trudging through the heavy snow. "Oh, Lady Medusa doesn't like me at all."

"But, why not? You're her son, too."

"She's disappointed that I haven't become a kishin yet. I'm trying really hard, but I can't seem to get there. Maybe I just don't know how I'd deal with being a kishin."

"Crona, is there _anything_ you know how to deal with?"

That question forced the purple-haired boy to think, hard. Surely there was an answer… right? At length, Crona found a workable response. "Being alone. It's easier to deal with things when no one else is around. But, since I have Ragnarok with me all the time, I don't get that chance."

"So, basically, you don't know how to deal with life."

"I suppose."

"Then, wouldn't it be easier to just… die?"

Crona gazed wide-eyed at Rasa, and he unconsciously began to tremble. "Wh… what, are you planning to kill me?"

Rasa smiled in what was supposed to be a friendly way, but something still seemed uncomfortably sinister about it, "Only if you want me to."

With that uncertain reply, the brothers finally spotted their destination. It was an insignificant village, but that was supposedly the whole beauty of it. Taking out several small towns would be easier and quieter than charging into a large city. Crona gulped, bracing himself for what was ahead. Rasa, on the other hand, let out a sort of delighted squeal and dashed over the snow like an ice-skater, calling over his shoulder, "You'd better hurry up, Brother, or I won't leave any for you!"

"Damn that brat!" Ragnarok spat, peeking around Crona's neck. "I won't go home with an empty stomach after all the work it took getting here. Go after him already, Crona!"

Crona sighed drearily. "Okay… although, I think I could deal with not having to eat any more souls."

* * *

Humans broke so easily. All it took was a slash across the neck, a stab to the chest. He liked it best when they screamed before their bodies dissolved into nothingness. No matter how their pitiful lives ended, the result was always the same: a soul waiting to be consumed. Rasa gorged himself, and yet his desire for more persisted with greater and greater urgency. His winter coat was soon splattered with blood, but he didn't mind; the smell was pleasantly intoxicating. He lost track of time and place, not even bothering to count the number of humans who fell to his attacks. After the last inhabitant's soul joined its fellows in his stomach, Rasa looked around. He hadn't seen Crona in a while; what could have happened to him?

His question was almost immediately answered by the sound of Ragnarok's deafening scream. Close behind the sound was a bright light and dust clouds that formed the shapes of skulls as they billowed up into the pale blue sky. Skulls… like that of a Grim Reaper – could the DWMA have found them? Rasa would have charged toward the conflict, but Crona came to him first. He stumbled into the alleyway where Rasa had slain his most recent victim, dragging Ragnarok along the ground and looking worn-out.

"Brother? What happened?"

Crona met his gaze with bleary eyes. "I… I was attacked."

"Well, that's obvious, dummy!" Ragnarok shouted. "The DWMA sent a whole slew of meisters and weapons after us! Crona got hit with the Soul Wavelength of one of the meisters, some blue-headed freak called-"

"BLACK STAR!" finished the owner of that name. He caught Crona off-guard, slamming him directly in the back with a blow that crackled with energy.

"NOOOOO!" Ragnarok screeched. "CRONA, YOU IDIOT! His Soul Wavelength is gonna screw everything up now! I… can't… maintain… form…" the Black Blooded weapon melted into goop and returned to Crona's body, leaving the purple-haired boy completely defenseless. Black Star howled with triumphant laughter.

"YOU'RE NOT SO HARD, DEMON SWORDSMAN! HA-HA-HA-HA!"

"Black Star!" cried his weapon in alarm. "Look out!"

But it was too late. The meister had been so caught up in his own glory that he had never even _seen_ the attack coming. Black Star looked down at his torso with mouth agape. A golden blade had pierced him in the lower chest, right around the liver, and blazing eyes of the same color glared at him from less than a foot away.

"You…" Rasa growled demonically. "You hurt Crona. You hurt my brother. I'LL KILL YOU!" He dragged his arm upward, bringing the weapon with it. Blood spouted from Black Star's chest like a miniature fountain, mixing with the snow to form soggy, rust-colored muck. The meister fell on his back, his eyes unseeing.

"Black Star! BLACK STAR!" The boy's sword transformed into a girl with long black hair who immediately laid herself protectively over the limp body of her partner. "Don't come any closer, you monster!" she threatened, her deep blue gaze full of ferocity.

"I don't have to," answered Rasa, retracting his blade back into his right forearm. "I can kill you from here. And then, I'll eat your souls. Won't that be fun?"

The girl's eyes widened in horror, as if she didn't want to believe a child could really say such things. That look of pity in her face, it _really_ pissed him off. Before he could strike, however, she threw something on the ground, and smoke erupted between them. When the makeshift cloud cleared, weapon and meister were gone, but a trail of blood showed they had simply retreated. Rasa relaxed slightly; the danger was no longer imminent. He turned to Crona, who had stood as frozen as a block of ice during the brief exchange.

"Are you okay, Brother?"

Crona blinked fearfully before nodding. "Only… Ragnarok can't come out. That meister shut him down for a little while. I won't be able to fight without Ragnarok. What should I do?"

"Use me." It was a command, not a request.

"But I've only ever used Ragnarok before!" Crona protested. "I just don't know how to deal with using another weapon!"

Rasa held out his hand. "That doesn't matter; I'll be here to help you deal with it. Come on, Crona. We're brothers; can't we work together?"

His words seemed to open up some new possibility in Crona's mind. The faintest of smiles appeared on his face, and he clasped Rasa's wrist. "…Okay."

The younger brother nodded. It would be his first time to transform completely around anyone other than Medusa, but he was confident. He could do it, and _together_, he and Crona would surely be unstoppable.

* * *

Alphonse raced along the snow-covered streets. When Tsubaki had brought back a mortally injured Black Star and reported the Demon Swordsman's last location, he hadn't hesitated for a moment. He had to find this Crona; it was his only possible lead on Ed. He _had_ to, and so he _would_. For being such a small village, it had a surprisingly confusing layout. For what felt like the hundredth time, Al ended up in the main square. He craned his neck and spun on the spot. _Where could he be hiding?_ Just then, he heard the light crunch of ice under foot. A boy matching Crona's description emerged from the shadow of a building, but his black sword was nowhere in sight. Instead, he held a quite different weapon: a golden scythe. A red dragon with spread wings topped the crux where handle met blade, serving as a short spike as well as a decoration. The design was familiar… and then it hit him. It looked almost exactly like the spears Ed would transmute. It couldn't just be coincidence… could it?

Crona spoke directly to the scythe as he approached Al, "Look at that, Rasa. It's someone in a suit of armor. I've never seen a guy dressed like that before. How should I deal with that?"

"Just don't think about it," advised the weapon in a distorted voice. "We can take him."

"If you say so," said the Demon Swordsman monotonously. He hefted the scythe with surprising ease, grasping the shaft with both hands. "Soul Resonance."

* * *

A/N: I love the main characters of _Soul Eater_. Each of them has some weird quirk or dominant aspect that, when put together, makes the whole cast phenomenal!

**OUTAKES TIME**:

**Lord Death**: "In Siberia, actually. He was seen heading for an isolated village, so it doesn't take much to guess what he's up to."

**Soul**: "He's going sledding without us. _Damn_ him."

TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALA TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALAAAAAAAAAAAA

**Al**: 0.0 "Then, do you think the other team is-"

**Excalibur**: "FOOLS!"

TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALA TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALAAAAAAAAAAAA

**Black Star**: "YEAH! JUST GIVE US THE WORD, LORD DEATH, AND WE'LL BE OFF QUICKER THAN YOU CAN SAY 'BLACK STAR'!"

**Lord Death**: *troll face* "Black Star."

TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALA TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALAAAAAAAAAAAA

**Crona**: "Wh… what, are you planning to kill me?"

**Rasa**: *creeper grin* "What was your first hint?"

TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALA TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALAAAAAAAAAAAA

**Crona**: T.T "I just don't know how to deal with using another weapon!"

**Rasa**: "That doesn't matter! Once your body becomes one with my steel, you will lose all emotion and become a warrior of death. For I will take your soul!" =3=


	5. Confrontation! He Doesn't Know Me?

_**An Unsound Soul**_

_**by AngelG93**_

* * *

A/N: Still working on an illustration project, but I hope to be done with it very soon, which will let me devote more of my free time to writing – yay!

REVIEW RESPONSE TIME:

**great fic**: Don't worry, he is _**never**_ going to regain his memories. That's why I warned everyone in the description that there would be no happy ending.

* * *

**Chapter 5**

**Confrontation! He Doesn't Know Me?**

It was a queer sensation at first, resonating souls. After the first few seconds, though, Rasa found it invigorating. Power flowed back and forth between him and Crona as easily as a stream of water. He felt his blade sharpen, forming a jagged edge that resembled his own serrated teeth. Their opponent, the man in the armor, seemed to be looking at him quizzically. Rasa didn't like it, not one bit.

"Crona, let's go! Chop his head clean off!"

"Right." The meister swung the scythe back in preparation and dashed toward the armored man, leaping up at the last second to bring the weapon across in a lateral attack that knocked off the helmet in a sweeping arc. When the brothers landed behind the man, Rasa noticed something: there was no head. Had Crona taken his suggestion literally? No, the helmet was empty, too. Then, the man turned, revealing an empty shell.

"Waaaahhh!" Crona yelped, scrambling away from the armor at once. "He's empty! I don't know how to deal with an empty suit of armor!" The purple-haired boy's grip on the scythe slipped, and the weapon clattered to the ground.

"Get ahold of yourself, Brother!" Rasa chided from within his weapon form. "Come on! Pick me up and fight him!"

Crona backed into a corner and curled up in utter terror. "I… I can't do it. I'm just too scared."

"Well, that's a pain in the ass."

The suit of armor picked up its head and reattached it. It then approached the brothers with such determination that Crona cried out in fear and covered his face with his arms. "NO! Go away! You're scaring me! Stop it!"

"You don't have to be afraid of me," said the suit of armor in a surprisingly high-pitched voice. "I don't want to have to hurt you." It extended a hand toward Crona. "Please-" but Rasa cut the stranger off mid-sentence by transforming back into a human and kicking him away.

The golden-haired boy landed on the balls of his feet and glared at the armored being from under his tattered bangs. "You… you stay the hell away from my brother. YOU HEAR ME? YOU LAY A HAND ON HIM; YOU LOSE THAT HAND!"

The stranger got to his feet. When he took one look at Rasa, he gasped so sharply that the death weapon was taken aback. "N… no…" the small metallic voice murmured after a long silence. "No, you can't be…"

"What the hell's your deal?" Rasa thundered. "If you've got a problem with me, spit it out!"

The armor held out its hands in supplication, as if it desperately wanted to touch him. "B… Brother?"

* * *

It had to be, but it couldn't be. This boy – Rasa – was a death weapon, a scythe. He was working with the Demon Swordsman, with a powerful, evil witch as well. How could he possibly also be Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist… his older brother?

"Brother?" Al asked again, reaching toward the familiar face.

The golden-haired boy didn't hesitate for an instant in his cold response. "I don't know what the hell you're talking about. I've never seen you before in my life."

That voice, those eyes, that small body – by what twisted coincidence could he _not_ be Ed? And yet, Al was a total stranger to him? Something just didn't fit. "It's me, Alphonse, your little brother."

Rasa cocked an eyebrow. "Where'd you come up with a crazy idea like that?" Suddenly, an idea seemed to click in place. "You're from the DWMA, aren't you? Were you in on that experiment of Stein's? Is that was this is about?"

"Huh?" said Al, not really knowing who this Stein person was. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, I guess not. You must just be confused, then." A disturbing smile spread across the boy's face as he took a step forward. "Well, if it's bothering you, I can just kill you and eat your soul. Then you won't have to worry about it any more."

Al backed away from the demonic figure he had mistaken for his brother as fear mounted inside of him. "W… wait. Please, I don't want to fight you. Keep away!"

Following his last cry came a rain of purple Soul Wavelength bullets, forcing the death weapon to pause in his approach. Death the Kid dropped from the top of a building beside Al. "Are you all right, Alphonse?"

"Uh… yeah."

"Good." The junior Grim Reaper fixed Rasa with a merciless glare. "I'll handle this one. He's obviously working with the Demon Swordsman, and that makes him an enemy." Kid began to glow as his soul resonated with those of his twin pistols.

"Wait! There's a chance he's-" but the noise from the activation of Kid's power drowned out the younger Elric's protest.

The Reaper pointed two intricately carved firearms at Rasa and clearly said, "Death Cannon." In the instant before the weapons fired, the golden-haired boy smirked and clapped his hands together. A second later, the blast went off, and large plumes of smoke drifted up into the snowy sky from the spot where Rasa had stood.

"And that's that," Kid announced, looking quite satisfied with himself. However, when the smoke cleared, the death weapon had barely budged. Al gasped again; Rasa had transmuted his left arm into a golden shield big enough to protect himself from the attack.

"That… that's alchemy," he breathed. "It has to be, which means…" The suit of armor sank to his knees, catching Kid's attention. "Which means he really is my brother."

"What?" Kid cried in alarm. "You can't be serious."

"I'm sure of it now. That's the only way he'd know how to use alchemy."

"But, then," Kid gaped. "How did he do that to himself just now? You said alchemy depends on equivalence, and _that_ was _definitely_ not equivalence."

"I don't know how! I just know…"

"I hope you're done talking," called Rasa as he grinned maliciously at the meister and alchemist, "because I'm going to kill you now." The boy's right arm transformed into the curved blade of a golden scythe, and he charged toward the Reaper. When Kid shot his Soul Wavelength at his attacker in bullet form, the beams just deflected off of Rasa's shield. Kid ducked out of the way just in time to avoid a swing from the makeshift sword and shoot Rasa in the back.

"Kid!" Al objected. "Why'd you shoot him?"

"I had to," Kid retorted. "He's going to kill me if I don't defend myself."

The death weapon stumbled a little, but did not fall. Snarling, he rounded to make another attack. "Just stand still and let me kill you, dammit! I'm still hungry!"

Kid and Rasa danced around each other's assaults for the next several minutes while Alphonse looked on, feeling utterly helpless. "What… what am I supposed to do?"

Suddenly, Crona let out a terrified scream. The remaining meister-and-weapon team had caught up and was now looming over the Demon Swordsman. Maka looked livid as she hefted Soul above her head. "You're gonna pay for what you did to Soul, you demon!"

"Aah! Rasa, help me!" Crona cried, pressing as far back into his corner as was humanly possible.

The death weapon, who had been airborne at the moment of Crona's plea, reacted instantly. His golden eyes burned with hatred, and his right arm lashed out at Maka and Soul like a metallic whip. The jagged edge caught around Soul's handle and pulled the weapon out of his meister's grip. Rasa drew his arm back in preparation to strike Maka this time. "HOW DARE YOU THREATEN MY BROTHER? YOU'RE DEAD!"

_No_, Al thought in desperation. _No, I won't let you hurt anyone else, Ed. You're not thinking clearly. I… I have to stop you._ As Rasa flew in for the kill, Alphonse acted. In one fluid motion, he slipped under the death weapon's defenses and landed a swift, solid blow to the back of his opponent's neck. The jolting force of the chop knocked all the air out of Rasa, and he fell into the snow, unconscious.

"Al…" Maka breathed in grateful awe. "Thank you. You saved me."

But Al wasn't listening. He sank down next to the limp form. Rasa's transmuted and magical weapons had receded into his arms, leaving only the body of a twelve-year-old boy. Al lifted Rasa into his lap and brushed the damp bangs away from the pale face. The sight of his brother's peaceful expression cut him more deeply than any sword.

"Ed…" he wept. "What… what happened to you? Why were you… why were you attacking innocent people? Who did this to you? Please, tell me!" Breaking down completely, he held the small form close and shook with heart-wrenched sobs.

Eventually, Maka came over to the brothers and placed a comforting hand on Al's shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Al. We had no idea things would turn out this way."

"Hey!" Soul snapped at Crona, glaring at the frightened boy. "What do you know about all this? Answer me, dammit!"

Crona's teeth chattered so violently that his words could barely be understood. "Sh… she… she b… brought… him… a… and… m… made… made him… l… like that…"

"She who?" Maka demanded, coming to her partner's side.

"NO!" Crona hiccupped, choking on his own sobs. " She… she told me not… not to tell you… I'll be punished…"

"Well, I doubt it'll be worse than the punishment we'll give you if you don't talk," Soul sneered, pushing up a sleeve threateningly.

"What's going on here?" asked a voice that was new to Al's ears. A man with silver hair, stitches across one side of his face, and a screw sticking out of his head strode into the square, followed by Maka's father.

"Professor Stein," Maka greeted, looking a little confused.

_That's Stein?_ Al noted, remembering Rasa's words.

"Why did you come?" the female meister persisted.

"Kid called us in," Stein replied, lighting a cigarette. "We've already sent Black Star and Tsubaki back to the DWMA with the emergency medical squad."

"We _have_ an emergency medical squad?" Soul asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, not really. It's more like a one-man-squad. He's in Dr. Medusa's hands now."

"Oh, I gotcha."

"Now," Stein continued, blowing out the fumes of his cigarette, "Spirit, can you handle the Demon Swordsman?"

"Definitely," Maka's father nodded, approaching Crona with what looked like thick, wide belts. Al would have continued watching him if not for Stein standing in his line of sight.

"You're Alphonse Elric, right?" the professor asked.

"Yes, sir," the alchemist managed, trying to put a cap on his turbulent emotions.

"Why are you holding that weapon? He's obviously a kishin egg, just like the Demon Swordsman."

Al gulped. "Because… because he's my brother, sir."

Stein's cigarette just about fell out of his mouth. "Are you serious?"

"Yes, sir. I'm sure of it."

"Well, what should we do, Stein?" Spirit asked, having finished restraining a whimpering Crona.

Stein pushed his glasses up further on the bridge of his nose. "I don't think we have much choice. We'll have to take him back to the academy… for analysis."

For one moment, Al was tempted to refuse, to run away carrying his brother and forget all about meisters and weapons. Something in Stein's eyes seemed… dangerous, crazed. Could Al safely entrust his brother to the care of these people?

Then, Maka smiled at him. "Don't you worry, Al. We'll find out what's wrong with your brother and fix him up, won't we, Professor Stein?"

The man's expression grew kinder in response to her question. "Yes. I promise you, Alphonse, I will do everything in my power to return him to his normal state."

Al gripped the unconscious Ed tightly as he struggled to maintain his composure. Now was not the time to doubt his new friends. After all, they were his only chance of getting his brother back.

* * *

A/N: Yes, Rasa can still tap into Ed's alchemical abilities, but he believes it's just his own special form of advanced magic.

**OUTTAKES TIME**:

**Al**: "Destroy navigation system! Destroy Robinson family! Crush! Kill! Destroy!"

**Crona**: "NO! Go away! You're scaring me! Stop it!"

TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALA TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALAAAAAAAAAAAA

**Al**: Brother?

**Rasa**: *creeper face* "Heeeeeeeeeey, Aaaaaaaaaaaaal. Whaaaaaaaaaazzuuuuuuuuuup?"

TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALA TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALAAAAAAAAAAAA

**Al**: "Kid! Why'd you shoot him?"

**Kid**: "BECAUSE HE HAS A SHIELD ON HIS LEFT ARM AND A SCYTHE ON HIS RIGHT! IT'S NOT SYMMETRICAL! HOW DISGUSTING! I MUST OBLITERATE SUCH VULGARITY FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH!"

TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALA TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALAAAAAAAAAAAA

**Spirit**: "Well, what should we do, Stein?"

**Stein**: "I don't think we have much choice." *dramatic pause* "I'll have to dissect him."


	6. Irretrievable Memories! Beyond Repair?

_**An Unsound Soul**_

_**by AngelG93**_

* * *

A/N: Watching _Soul Eater_ has motivated me to write more of this story. After I finish _Breaking the Habit_ and _Nowhere is Safe_, I'll so my best to chug through this one next.

REVIEW RESPONSE TIME:

**great fic again**: No, Rasa won't be paired with anyone. The only pairing you might see hinted at in this story is SoulxMaka.

* * *

**Chapter 6**

**Irretrievable Memories! A Soul Beyond Repair?**

"But, why can't I see him?" Alphonse demanded. He had come down to the dungeons of the DWMA with the intent of visiting his brother's cell, only to be turned away by Spirit.

"I'm sorry, Al, but I think it's for the best." The Death Scythe's face was filled with sympathy. "Do you really want to see him, the way he is now?"

"I-"

"Please, Al, just wait until Stein can give us a diagnosis. Then, we'll at least know where we stand."

Al clenched his fists in frustration, but his more level-headed nature knew that Maka's father was right.

"Besides," Spirit added, "there's still the possibility that it isn't him after all."

"You're wrong. There's no doubt in my mind that he's Ed."

"Ah, but I remember your description that Maka passed on to me. You told her your brother Edward has a mechanical arm and leg. But the boy we found in Siberia has neither."

"That doesn't disprove anything," Al countered immediately, "The witch who's responsible, she's powerful, right? She could have done all kinds of things to him."

"Al…"

"I know alchemy when I see it, and Rasa… Ed… it was alchemy. I just know it!"

"_Alphonse_," Spirit repeated, momentarily increasing the intensity of his tone. Once he had the younger Elric's silence and full attention, he sighed. "Listen, I know you want to believe that boy is your brother, that Stein can fix him, and the two of you can return to your home… but, the fact is, not one of those things is guaranteed. Suppose he is Edward, and his state is irreversible. What then?"

His words gave Al pause. The young alchemist had been so caught up in _finding_ Ed that he hadn't considered what he would do after that, how Ed's condition would influence his decisions. "I… I don't know. For once, I didn't think that far ahead."

Spirit placed an insistent hand on Al's back and guided him toward the staircase upstairs. "Well, then, maybe you _should_ think about it while Stein gathers information."

"…Okay."

* * *

Rasa didn't at all like his new surroundings. The dark and narrow holding cell made him feel even smaller than usual, as if the walls were closing in and crushing him. The thick, heavy restrains only made it worse. The material felt similar to a stiff rubber, and it encased him from the shoulders to the upper thighs, preventing him from moving his arms at all. His ankles had been cuffed and chained to sturdy pegs, leaving him incapable of even standing up. "Just wait," he muttered in the darkness. "The first chance I get, those bastards are dead."

He didn't have to wait long until someone came to his door. The light hurt his eyes at first, preventing him from seeing who had entered until she was only feet from him.

"M… Mother?"

"Shh," Medusa whispered, crouching down by his side. She looked quite different, having replaced her hooded robe for a black dress and a lab coat. "Listen to me, Rasa. I need you to be a good boy and do as I say, you understand?"

"Yes, ma'am," the son replied dutifully. "Is Crona okay?"

"Never mind about him," the witch dismissed. "Rasa, you can't tell anyone from the DWMA my name, all right? I have to be able to keep my cover as a school nurse here, and I can't do that if there's a witch with the same name as me. It would be too suspicious."

"Oh… yes, ma'am." Rasa then added, "So… I can't call you Mother while you're here, can I? That would give you away."

"You little genius," Medusa trilled, planting a kiss on his forehead. "It is… _unfortunate_ that Crona let you two get caught. I can't try to free you without risking exposure. You understand, don't you, darling?"

"Yes," Rasa replied, his eyes drooping with sadness. Oh, he understood, but that wouldn't make being stuck in this cell any easier.

"If you behave, they might let you out," Medusa hinted, as if reading his mind. "Maybe Stein will 'let me' look after you, and then-"

"And then what?" said a cold voice. Someone else had just walked into Rasa's cell, a man who looked like he had come straight out of a horror novel.

"Oh, Professor Stein," chirped Medusa, raising the pitch of her voice for added effect. "I didn't see you there."

"I only just got here," Stein noted. "But, why are _you_ in here, Dr. Medusa? Is this kishin egg of interest to you as well?"

"Why, of course he is," Medusa tutted. "Oh, don't worry, Professor. I know you get first dibs on analyzing him. I was just seeing if I could get anything out of him before you got started."

"How considerate of you," Stein complimented, but Rasa could tell this man didn't completely trust Medusa. "But, you have your own patient to be tending to."

"So, I do. Well, I'll leave you to it," the disguised witch beamed as she headed for the door. "Have fun."

"I'm sure I will," Stein said to thin air. He approached Rasa with gleaming eyes, the light from the hallway reflecting off of his glasses and the screw protruding from his head. This was the man who'd hurt him before, who'd torn him away from his mother and caused so much pain.

"Get away…" Rasa heard himself whimper.

Stein continued to advance.

"Get away," he repeated, snarling this time.

The dangerous man was less than a yard from him. Rasa's fear hit the roof.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" he screamed, swinging his knee up as far as his shackles would allow and willing his weapon form to awaken. Stein reacted just in time so that the golden blade jutting out of Rasa's kneecap only shaved off a few hairs.

"So, you're going to make this difficult. Fine, I can handle that easily enough. You've got raw power, kid, that's for sure, but your control is volatile at best." He pulled a few thin, rod-like objects out of his pocket and unfurled them: more restraints. Stein moved quickly, too fast for even Rasa to follow, and moments later, the small boy found himself practically cocooned in the resilient material. Not wasting another second, Stein unchained him and slung him over one shoulder.

"Lemme go!" Rasa cried, his small voice dripping with terror. "Stop it! Put me down, you bastard!" He continued to yell insults as Stein carried him through several dark hallways. When they reached a room unmistakable as a laboratory, however, Rasa's tough-guy act broke completely. "Please, don't hurt me! Not again! I don't want to forget again! Please, let me go! I'll be good; just please don't hurt me again!"

Stein set him down on the operating table and gave him a quizzical look. "Again? What do you mean?"

"Like you don't know!" Rasa choked as fear squeezed tears out of his eyes. "You're the one! You did it! You made me forget and locked up my power in that scary metal arm and leg!"

Stein raised an eyebrow. "Is that the lie the witch fed you?"

"My mother wouldn't lie to me! You're the one who planted lies in my head!" Rasa's face became vacant. "But, Mother made them all go away. She made me all better." Then, his crazed golden eyes came back into focus as he pleaded, "So… so, please… don't hurt me again."

Stein set out his tools and turned to Rasa. "For Alphonse's sake, I'll do my best not to hurt you."

Now Rasa was the one confused. "Who… who's 'Alphonse'?"

"You really don't remember?" asked Stein as he filled a syringe with a clear liquid. "Al's your little brother, Edward."

Rasa shook his head adamantly. "No, _I'm_ the little brother – Crona's brother. And, my name isn't 'Edward.' I've never heard that name before in my life."

"Or, at least, in what you can remember of your life."

"Don't play head games with me, you meanie!" Rasa whined.

"All right, that's enough talking for now; it's time I got to work." Stein stuck Rasa's neck with the syringe, and the boy immediately began to feel sleepy. His whole body went limp, and Stein unfastened the restraints only to strap him to the table. Rasa had never been this scared before; he couldn't stop the piteous tears from streaming down the sides of his face.

"Stop it… stop, please… I… don't… want…" but his voice faded away with his consciousness.

* * *

Despite Spirit's warnings, Al sought out Professor Stein's laboratory inside the DWMA. He didn't dare try to go in, but he slumped beside the door and hugged his spiky metal knees. He must have waited for hours, the fear and concern eating away at his insides. "Please… please, Ed. Please come back to me. I need you, Brother. Please…" At long last, Stein opened the door as he pulled off his surgical gloves.

"Oh, it's you, Al. Have you been sitting there this whole time?"

Al nodded and stood. "Well? How is he? Is he going to be okay? Please, Professor Stein, I-" He paused as Stein held up a hand for silence.

The professor lit a fresh cigarette and sighed, "There's no easy way to tell you this… Through some things he said and my own findings, I can confirm that he was your brother."

Al didn't know whether to be excited or terrified, so he encouraged Stein to continue with the simple question, "'He… was'?"

"That's just it. I examined him every way I know how – which is exhaustive – and I found no trace of his original memories."

The younger Elric staggered against the nearest wall. "What? But, how-"

"It's the Black Blood. It wiped him clean, and the witch responsible used that to her full advantage."

"So… if we get it out of him, then-"

"You're not listening to me, Alphonse. There is _nothing_. _Nothing_. His memories weren't suppressed; they were eradicated. I'm sorry, but… I can't create something from nothing. I can't bring back your brother."

Al's legs gave way, and he fell to his knees. "Then… he's… he's gone?"

"I'm sorry," said Stein, patting Al's shoulder sympathetically, "but I'm afraid so."

It was too painful, more agonizing than any sensation he'd felt before. Al buried his face in his hands and shook with sobs that could only produce tears in his soul. It wasn't fair! So much had been taken from him already, and now… now Ed… his wonderful, strong, big brother… was lost to him forever.

* * *

A/N: T^T So sad…

Spirit is pretty awesome. Vic Mignogna characters FTW! (shameless plug for my favorite voice actor)

**OUTTAKES TIME**:

**Spirit**: "Suppose he is Edward, and his state is irreversible. What then?"

**Al**: "Oh, that's easy. I'll just kill him."

TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALA TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALAAAAAAAAAAAA

**Stein**: "But, why are _you_ in here, Dr. Medusa? Is this kishin egg of interest to you as well?"

**Medusa**: "Why, of course he is! He's my son, you heartless screw-head!"

**Stein**: "Hey, Spirit! I found the witch we've been looking for!"

**Medusa**: "Oh, crap…"

TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALA TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALAAAAAAAAAAAA

**Al**: "Well? How is he? Is he going to be okay?"

**Stein**: *smile* "Oh, yes, he's hunky-dory, and everything will be sunshine and roses from now on!"

**Al**: "Really?" OvO

**Stein**: *deadpan* "No, that was a lie. Actually, your brother's memories are gone forever. Sorry."

**Al**: D8


	7. Madness Contained! Can We Be Friends?

_**An Unsound Soul**_

_**by AngelG93**_

* * *

A/N: Onward!

REVIEW RESPONSE TIME:

**Guest**: Rasa/Ed and Al's relationship will "improve," but it won't ever be exactly what it was, sorry. Rasa/Ed isn't scared of people in general; it's just Stein who frightens him at first because of what Medusa told him. *looks around* Rasa/Ed will believe Al near/at the VERY END (but that still won't make it a "happy ending")

* * *

**Chapter 7**

**The Madness Contained! Can We Be Friends?**

"Still," said Stein, twiddling his cigarette with his lips, "that doesn't mean there's absolutely nothing I can do for him."

Al stared up at the professor from where his knelt on the floor. "What do you mean?"

Stein motioned for Al to follow him into the laboratory, but the younger Elric hesitated for a moment before doing so. Inside, the first thing he saw was Rasa, belted down to an operating table and unconscious.

"Do… do you have to keep him restrained like that?"

"Would you rather he was running around trying to kill us?" asked Stein.

Al sighed heavily, then drew his attention to Stein, who was wiping off a blackboard. "What are you doing now?"

"I'm going to illustrate a theory I have so I can better explain it to you."

"Oh, okay."

Picking up a piece of blue chalk, Stein drew a circle. "This represents your brother's soul. The witch pumped him full of Black Blood, which – as I already told you – erased all of his memories, but it also gave him an unnatural hunger for human souls." Stein drew more blue circles with arrows pointing to the circle for Ed. "With me so far?"

Al nodded.

"Now, here's where things get quite interesting. This witch then employed the original technique of the Heretic Witch Arachne."

"Which is?"

"Turning ordinary humans into death weapons. She fed him the soul of a witch and combined his body with an inanimate object: his 'automail,' I think you called it."

"So that's why his arm and leg look normal now?"

"Yes. They were restored with magic."

"And the automail was reshaped into the form of that scythe?"

"That's a simple way of putting it, but yes." Stein returned to his drawing at this point, inscribing a purple circle snugly inside Ed's "soul."

"Does that represent the witch's soul inside him?"

"Right. It's too securely merged for me to _remove_ it, but… I may have found a way to _contain_ it."

"How?"

"Witches have a technique called 'Soul Protect.' It's a useful disguise that conceals their nature as witches, but it also prevents them from using magic. Your brother's weapon form is activated through magic, so… if I can find the wavelength of the witch's soul and engage its Soul Protect, then he won't be able to take weapon form. I might even be able to restrain some of the madness."

"Madness?"

"Yeah – that's another result of the Black Blood. You could think of it like a super-charged energy drink with serious side effects. It's made him immensely powerful, but that sheer amount of power obliterated his memories and – without those memories to ground him – drove him insane. All the witch had to do then was whisper a few lies, and he believed whatever she said, whatever she wanted him to believe."

"That's… horrible."

Stein nodded in agreement. "It is indeed."

"So… how are you going to find the wavelength you need, or make this Soul Protect thing activate?"

"That's what I'll need to research. I'm moving Edward to my private laboratory for that very reason."

Al paused. "Y… you're going to take him away?"

Stein smiled comfortingly. "It's not that far from here. I'd invite you to come along, but… I don't think that would be prudent. However, I'll make sure to keep you notified of my progress."

Al could hear the dismissal in the professor's voice, so he bowed respectfully and turned on his heel toward the door. As he passed the table on his way out, he briefly placed a hand on Rasa's shoulder. "Just hang on, Brother. I'll find a way; I'll help you remember."

* * *

Rasa woke from his dreamless sleep to unfamiliar surroundings. He was still tied down to an examination table, but the laboratory was different. The ceiling and walls looked like someone had attacked them with a staple-gun, and Rasa eventually connected the pattern with the stitches on Stein's face. _So, this place belongs to him? Why am I here? What's that creepy bastard gonna do to me?_

"Well, good afternoon, Edward." Stein entered his field of vision, sitting astride a swivel chair decorated with the same staple-gun-treatment.

Rasa frowned. "I told you before, dumbass; I'm not this Edward person."

"Believe what you like," Stein shrugged, pushing off the table and rolling across the floor to a desk on the other side of the room. "Despite whatever that witch you call you mother told you, I only want to help you."

Scoffing, Rasa looked at the restraints binding him to the table. Maybe he could cut them with his scythe…

"By the way, the moment you even _consider_ trying to escape, I'm going to dope you again."

"How'd you know I-"

"Because I'm not stupid," Stein said bluntly, returning with a needle and injecting Rasa's arm. Though he didn't fall asleep this time, he lost feeling in his limbs. Even his tongue swelled a little with numbness. "I'm doing this for your own good, Ed."

Rasa tried to say, "Don't call me 'Ed,'" but what came out was unintelligible mumblings.

"You shouldn't try to talk," Stein advised. "You could easily bite your tongue, what with those sharp teeth of yours, and you wouldn't even feel it." He pulled his chair up to a large blackboard covering an entire wall. Scribbled all over it were complex equations that made absolutely no sense to Rasa. _What is Stein trying to do? What does that mean for me? I don't get it, Mother. You said the madness would mean I didn't have to be afraid anymore, but… that man scares me._

Whether from the influence of the drugs, or from his own insanity, Rasa could see Medusa standing by his side. She brushed his cheek with a tender hand and whispered, _"Madness is a fickle thing; only when you give over completely, when you abandon all sensible or coherent thought, can fear never reach you."_

_But how do I do that?_ Rasa asked in his head.

"_You'll know how when you need to. It will take over like an instinct, filling you with power and banishing all fear."_ She kissed his forehead and said, _"Trust me, sweetheart, you won't have to stay with Stein for long. Soon, Mother will take care of you again, okay?"_

_Okay._

The image faded just as Stein rolled back over to the table and placed a hand on Rasa's bare chest. The man's touch produced a strange tingling under his skin that he could detect through the numbness.

"I'm so close," Stein muttered. "Come on."

Rasa didn't understand why the professor's face seemed so full of genuine concern. After all, Stein was the bad guy, wasn't he? Just then, Rasa felt a lurch in his gut. Something was wrong, and he was sure it was Stein's fault. Rasa fixed the bespectacled man with an accusing glare that clearly demanded, _"What the hell did you just do to me, you bastard?"_

Stein smiled and gave possibly the most frustrating reply possible. "Bingo." He administered another dose of sedative to Rasa, and the boy drifted off once more with the final thought of _Damn, I hate your guts_.

* * *

When he regained consciousness, Rasa took a few moments to realize that his location had changed _again_. No longer was he strapped to a table like a dissection project; he was lying on a cot with a warm blanket over him. He sat up slowly, feeling drained, enfeebled. Despite his initial confusion, he found that he was still in Stein's lab, but the professor was nowhere in sight. Wrapping the blanket around his uncovered shoulders, he unsteadily got to his feet.

"Hey!" he shouted to the empty room. "Where'd you go, Stein? What the hell's going on here?"

Since there was no reply, Rasa decided to look around. In that eerie stillness, his bare feet seemed to make an unnecessary amount of noise as they pitter-pattered against the cold stone floor. He walked past a plain mirror, and what he saw immediately caught his attention. Above the snake-like tattoo on his shoulder and the scar left from that cursed metal arm, something was around his neck. It looked like a collar of sorts, very thin and fitted to his skin. Whatever it was made out of was so comfortable that Rasa would never have noticed it if he hadn't seen it. Experimentally, he felt it all the way around; at the nape of his neck, the collar had a button. A release mechanism? Rasa pushed it, but nothing happened. Having his theory disproved put him in a bad mood. "Okay," he said to himself. "Then, I'll just rip it off." Wrapping his fingers in-between the collar and his skin, he pulled it away from his neck. Unfortunately, it didn't go far; he wouldn't be able to slip it over his head. Really feeling pissed now, he tried to cut the infernal thing with one of his scythes… but he couldn't transform. Was _that_ what this collar was for?

"Works without a hitch," said Stein cheerily after suddenly entering through the nearest door. Rasa whirled on him and brought up his fists to defend himself, but Stein only smiled jokingly. "Oh, come now, Ed. A powerless little boy against the DWMA's strongest meister – there's only one way a fight between us could turn out."

"I'm not Ed! And, I'm not powerless, you screw-headed bastard!" Again, he tried to transform his arm into a scythe, with no success. "What did you do to me?" he shouted.

"Your weapon form, and – for the most part – your madness, they're both contained now. It took me a few days, but you wouldn't know that, since you were under the whole time."

"Fix it! Change me back!"

"That wouldn't be hard to do; just take off that collar."

Rasa pulled at the damn thing around his neck, but it just wouldn't stretch far enough for him to get it off.

"Oh, right. I've made it impossible for you to take it off yourself," Stein added, as if he had momentarily forgotten. "For example, that button in the back won't unlock the collar when _you_ press it, but for anyone else…" He shrugged. "Piece of cake."

"Get if off me, right now!"

"I won't. It's for your own good, Ed."

"I'M NOT ED! STOP CALLING ME THAT!"

Stein sighed. "Fine, Rasa. I'm only trying to help you."

"As if I would want your help! You're DWMA! You're the enemy!"

"That's what 'your mother' wanted you to believe. She brainwashed you, kid."

"How dare you accuse Mother of such a thing? She loves me! She's gonna come and get me and kill all of you scum! She'll wipe you from existence!"

"Keep telling yourself that, Rasa. In the meantime…" Stein tossed the boy a sweatshirt. "It's a bit big, but better that than walking around shirtless. Plus, you'll want to cover up that tattoo; most people in Death City would get wary of a kid with the mark of a witch."

Rasa pulled the sweatshirt over his head, but – in light of Stein's second suggestion – he defiantly tugged at the fabric so that the head of the tattooed snake was plainly visible.

"Have it your way," Stein shrugged again. "Now, then..." He placed a hand on the door. "Come on; there's someone who's been waiting to see you."

Rasa threw Stein a skeptical glare, but he remembered what Medusa had told him to do: _"If you behave, they might let you out."_ Dropping his gaze to the floor, Rasa mumbled, "Okay."

"Good. Just follow me." And, with that, he pushed the door open.

* * *

Stein had told Alphonse to wait outside the house so that he could bring Ed; he was sure the boy would be eager to get out of the lab after several days. So, Al waited, doing his best to be patient. Still, he couldn't help but wonder what condition his brother would be in. Stein had seemed hopeful, but only Al knew what Ed was _supposed_ to be like, who he _really_ was. Anything short of that would automatically feel like a letdown.

The front door swung open, and Stein came outside. After nodding at Al, he stepped aside and motioned for someone in the shadow of the interior to _"come on out."_ Slowly, Rasa emerged. He glanced at Al with total indifference, and the younger Elric's heart sank a little. _Stop that_, he chided himself. _You can't expect him to act like Ed, no matter how much you want him to._

"Rasa, this is Al," said Stein. "I told you about him the other day, but you two actually had met long before that."

The golden-haired boy puzzled over that, and then something clicked. "Oh, yeah! I remember."

"Y… you do?" cried Al, excitement flooding him.

"Yeah, Crona and I fought you in Siberia. You claimed you were my little brother, or some nonsense like that."

"Oh…" The disappointment punched him in the gut, especially at the word _"nonsense."_ Stein sensed Al's distress and nudged Rasa closer to the brother he had forgotten.

"Al, I'll be close if things get out of hand; just give a shout if you need me." He then walked back inside the house and shut the door, leaving the brothers alone.

"Ed…"

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" snapped the boy, so harshly that Al let slip a choked, heartbroken, sob. The pitiful sound brought a new emotion into Rasa's face: guilt. "…please," he appended, a patch of red appearing across his cheeks.

Steeling himself, Al addressed his brother again. "Rasa, even if you don't believe me about who you were before all of this, I want to get to know you as you are now. I… I just want to be your friend."

Rasa looked confused. "But, I'm your enemy. Why would you bother?"

"Because, regardless of you being Rasa or Ed, I think you're worth it."

"Hate to rain on your parade, but _I think_ you'll be sorely disappointed." He chewed on his lower lip with his pointed teeth. "You really cared about this Ed, didn't you?"

"More than anything else in the world."

"I'm… sorry that you lost him, then."

Al's shoulders straightened. Rasa was _sorry_ for him? Could it be that, memories or not, some of Ed was still in there, engrained into his very being? Al was willing to stake everything on that. "So… can we be friends?"

Rasa met Al's gaze for the first time in the conversation. Even though he seemed reluctant, that tiny fraction of pity wrung the answer out of him, an answer that filled Al with hope.

"I'll give it a shot."

* * *

A/N: Nothing much to say here…

**OUTTAKES TIME:**

**Al**: "Y… you're going to take him away?"

**Stein**: "Yes. I'm going to hold him captive in my lab and experiment on him to my hearts' content. I'd invite you to come along, but… I don't think that would be prudent. However, I'll make sure to keep you notified of my progress."

**Al**: O^O "Forget it! I'm not gonna let you experiment on my brother!"

TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALA TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALAAAAAAAAAAAA

**Stein**: "Oh, come now, Ed. A powerless little boy against the DWMA's strongest meister – there's only one way a fight between us could turn out."

**Rasa**: "Yeah! I'd wipe the floor with your screw-headed ass!"

TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALA TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALAAAAAAAAAAAA

**Rasa**: "You really cared about this Ed, didn't you?"

**Al**: "More than anything else in the world."

**Rasa**: "Ha! And yet, you somehow lost track of him? That's hysterical!"

**Al**: D8 "It's not funny at all! You meanie!" T^T


	8. Progress and Regress! An Artful Act?

_**An Unsound Soul**_

_**by AngelG93**_

* * *

A/N: Now that I've finished _Breaking the Habit_, this fic and _Nowhere is Safe_ are the two I'll be working on next. After whichever one I finish first, I'll start up again on _To Call Your Name_ (I'm really excited to keep going with that one).

* * *

**Chapter 8**

**Progress and Regress! An Artful Act?**

"Wow! This place is huge!"

"Are you sure you should be standing up there?"

"I'm fine. I saw that blue-haired meister doing this just a few hours ago."

"You really shouldn't follow Black-Star's example. He's technically still supposed to be recovering."

"Something tells me he doesn't often follow what he's supposed to be doing."

"Please, E… Rasa, come down from there. It just makes me uneasy."

The golden-haired boy looked down at the suit of armor from his perch atop the parapet. The concern in the younger voice leaked through the metal; it might have been an optical illusion, but Rasa thought he could almost see creased eyebrows and a nervous frown. Rasa pursed his thin lips. He liked being up this high; it made him feel free – a pleasant lie. Still, he didn't want to make the armored boy worry, the kid who so desperately wanted to be his friend.

"Okay," he said at last, making his way back to the ground. "Is that better, Alphonse?"

The armor nodded. "Was the view nice?"

"Yeah, I could see the whole academy. No wonder my mother thinks the DWMA is a force to be reckoned with; there must be hundreds of you guys here!"

"R… right… your mother…" Alphonse sounded awfully forlorn as he echoed the words.

"What's up with you?" Rasa cocked an eyebrow. "Is this about… your brother?" He hated to bring up the subject, but he didn't want to be ignorant about Al's situation. _I know _I'm_ not Al's brother, but maybe if I know more about him, I could help Al find him._

_And why should we do that?_ another part of his mind hissed. _He's an ally of the DWMA, which makes him our enemy. Why should we help him?_

_I… I dunno_, Rasa admitted to himself. _It's not like I have anything else to do while I'm stuck here._

_Yes, stuck here. We might be able to walk around now, but we're still the DWMA's prisoner. As long as we have that collar on our neck, we'll act as their obedient dog._

_Shut up! I'm no one's dog._

_What would Mother say if she saw us helping this one?_

_She… she…_ Truthfully, Medusa probably wouldn't like it at all, since she wanted to destroy the DWMA. Then again, she was disguised as the school's nurse. Maybe he should go to the nurse's office and ask her…

Alphonse said nothing in response to Rasa's question, but he sighed nostalgically. After an uncomfortable pause, the small blonde felt a need to speak up. "Forget I mentioned it; don't look so glum, would ya?"

The armor gave a sort of grunting affirmation, but Rasa could tell Al was still feeling down about something. As much as the controlled and sane side of Rasa felt sympathy for the boy torn away from his only family, his volatile half had far less patience. He hated the way Al couldn't help but constantly mix him up with the missing brother; for instance, when Rasa had refused to drink his milk at breakfast that morning because it smelled weird, Alphonse had laughed and said, _"At least something about you hasn't changed."_

_The kid needs to just move on_, Rasa muttered to himself.

"Well, I'm heading inside," he said aloud to an unfocused Al before swiveling on the pads of his bare feet and traipsing into the nearest corridor. Even though the academy was big and confusing, there were enough signs on the upper floors to direct him to the nurse's office. At the door, he knocked and waited until Medusa answered it.

"Rasa." She checked the corridor to make sure they were alone before ushering him inside. "I was told that Stein had deemed you 'controlled.' Did he hurt you much, darling?" Concern creased her brow as she started fussing over him.

"Not much," he shook his head, giggling as his mother's inspection devolved into sporadic tickling. "But," he added, his face growing more solemn, "it was still pretty scary."

"Oh, my little angel," simpered Medusa, pulling him into her arms and kissing his head tenderly. "Mother's so sorry she couldn't protect you."

"It's okay, since they don't have me chained up anymore." Then, an idea occurred to him. "Mother, you can take this collar off me, right? Then-"

"Unfortunately, darling, that's not a good idea. Since Stein's Soul Wavelength is transmitted through that collar, he'll know if someone removes it, and if that someone is me…"

"That'll make him even more suspicious of you," Rasa filled in, disappointment leaking into his voice. "I understand."

"But… I do have something else I can do for you. Something I know you'll like."

"Which is?"

Medusa beckoned with a black-nailed finger as she strode across the room to a locked cabinet. "I've sealed this so that meisters can't detect its contents; it makes an excellent place to store… contraband." When she turned around to face her son again, she was holding a flickering blue orb. Rasa's eyes widened, and saliva thickened in the back of his mouth.

"Here you go," Medusa said with a purr, placing the human soul in his hands. Immediately, Rasa clamped his mouth around the sphere and swallowed it whole. "Such a good boy," his mother smiled approvingly, wrapping him in her arms again and rocking gently.

All of Rasa's senses flared to full potency as the power of the soul added to his own. When his body and mind finally calmed down, he asked, "Mother, have you gotten to see Crona at all?"

"I haven't, no," sighed Medusa. "But, I'm sure he'd be happy to see you, all alone in that cell. Why don't you go find him?"

"Mm." The blonde boy nodded, but paused before departing, remembering why he'd come in the first place. "Mother?"

"Yes, darling?"

"Is… is it okay if… I act like a friend to that Alphonse kid?"

Medusa's face was hard to read, but she eventually smiled again. "Certainly. We might be able to use such a connection to our advantage later."

Rasa didn't want to admit it to himself, but he'd been thinking the same thing. With that confirmation, he slipped out of her arms to search for Crona. He knew it would have to be in the dungeons, but if the DWMA was gargantuan aboveground, it was just as massive underground. Before he got too lost, however, he encountered the man called Spirit. The Death Scythe, having seen him, immediately asked, "What are you doing down here, Rasa?"

"I…" Rasa suppressed a tremor in his voice as the red-haired man loomed over him. _Damn tall people_. "I'm looking for my brother, Crona. Can I see him?"

Spirit's expression softened – a sight which comforted the boy to some extent. "I don't see why not. All right, come on." He steered Rasa through the maze of cells and passageways until they reached a door through which the boy could hear muffled sobs. "Go on in," said Spirit as kindly as possible. "I'll wait here."

"Thanks," Rasa found himself mumbling as he pushed on the door. Once, inside, however, it took a full turn-around before he found Crona sitting in the corner behind the door, his face buried into his knees as he whimpered. "Crona!" the younger brother exclaimed cheerily, half-tackling Crona as he wrapped his arms around the older boy's shoulders.

Crona stiffened in surprise and stammered, "R-r-r-r-rasa! W-w-w-w-what are y-y-y-you d-d-d-doing here?"

"Spirit said I could come see you, silly," beamed the golden-haired boy, showing Crona all his pointed teeth. "What're brothers for?"

"Oh…." Crona still seemed extremely nervous; Rasa could feel him shaking. "R-right… b-brothers…"

"What's the matter, Crona?" Rasa let go of his big brother and eyed him with confusion.

"It… It's just… It's nothing…"

The smaller boy knit his brow. Crona had never been comfortable around him the way brothers were supposed to be – why was that? What could push Crona away from him?

_We can't expect him to be all here_, whispered that raspier side of his mind. _He's given more of himself to the Madness than we have because he's more easily scared than we are._

_Oh, is that why? _Rasa tilted his head as he tried to meet Crona's darting purple eyes. "Crona? What's it like, letting the Madness take over?"

Crona stared at his little brother, taken aback by the question. "Huh? I… I don't really know… hard to remember…"

"But, it felt good, right? Not to be afraid of anything?"

Crona said nothing, but, after a long pause, he bobbed his head down once in affirmation.

_I knew it_, Rasa assured himself. His mother had told him a similar thing, and she was never wrong, so – between her words and Crona's testimony – he wouldn't hesitate to slip deep into the Madness as soon as he got free of this damned collar. That, of course, gave him an idea. "Hey, Crona?"

"Mm?"

"Could you get this off of me?" He pointed to the inhibitor around his neck. "You just push the button at the back."

Crona stretched a tentative finger toward his little brother, but quickly withdrew it as Spirit entered. "Rasa," said the Death Scythe, trying not to be stern, "that collar is for your own good. If you take it off, it won't go well for you; got it?"

Sticking out his lower lip in a pout, Rasa grumbled, "Yeah…"

"I think you should go now. Soul came down here saying that Al was looking for you."

This put Rasa in an even worse mood. Alphonse wasn't his keeper! He shouldn't have to be figuratively chained to that suit of armor 24/7! But… he was supposed to be acting as Alphonse's friend now, so… he accepted that there was nothing he could really do about it. "Okay."

"Good." Spirit stood back so that Rasa could walk out ahead of him. Crona didn't move from his spot in the corner; he didn't even say goodbye to his little brother. _Weird…_

Rasa threw Soul a dirty look the moment they made eye-contact, but the white-haired boy just laughed, showing teeth just as sharp and jagged as Rasa's. "Nice glare, kid. You just might be all right, you know that?" He tried to ruffle Rasa's hair, but the nimble boy easily slipped out from under the outstretched hand. "C'mon," Soul chuckled, "Al's waiting up above."

"'Kay…" This pretending business might be harder than he'd thought. What if he blabbed, and his mother got caught? No. He couldn't let that happen. No matter what, he had to convince Alphonse and the others that he really wanted to be their friend… even though – in reality – he would just be sharpening his scythes behind their backs.

* * *

Medusa watched the Evans boy walking with Rasa across the outer courtyard, and a satisfied smirk slithered across her face. Everything was going according to plan, much better than she'd initially hoped, in fact. Now that the former Edward Elric's allegiance to her was absolutely secured, it was time to turn back to her previous plans. She could still awaken the kishin on the night of the DWMA's upcoming gala. The werewolf Free was ready to come at her call, Crona could easily be freed from the dungeons, and Eruka… well, she was gone, of course, but Medusa now had a much more viable asset with which she could fill that vacancy in her strategy. She could imagine the small boy's eager face, those golden eyes lit up in excitement at the thought of receiving a special mission. _"Anything for you, Mother,"_ he would say with wholehearted sincerity. The mere thought of how utterly she had molded him made her laugh. After he'd served his purpose, maybe she would keep him around just to be entertained by his unreserved devotion to her. Then again… perhaps not. It would all depend on her mood after the kishin was free. She had remade Edward to serve as her tool, after all, and now… all that really mattered was that he prove as useful to her as she'd intended.

* * *

A/N: blaaaaaaaargh… I need to draw some more art from this story…

Oh, and I don't expect this fic to be that many more chapters. The plot is simple enough that I can probably finish it up around a dozen chapters or so…

**OUTTAKES TIME:**

**Rasa**: _I know _I'm_ not Al's brother, but maybe if I know more about him, I could help Al find him._

**Crazy!Rasa**: _And why should we do that, precious? He's our enemy!_

**Rasa**: _Al's my friend._

**Crazy!Rasa**: _You don't have any friends. Nobody likes you._

**Rasa**: _I'm not listening. I'm not listening_.

**Crazy!Rasa**: _You're a liar, and a thief_.

**Rasa**: _No…_

**Crazy!Rasa**: _Muuuuuurdererrrrrrr…._

TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALA TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALAAAAAAAAAAAA

**Rasa**: I'm looking for my brother, Crona. Can I see him?"

**Spirit**: 'Fraid not. We killed him and ate his liver.


	9. Medusa's Plan! To the Kishin's Prison?

_**An Unsound Soul**_

_**by AngelG93**_

* * *

A/N: I'm so sorry that I haven't written more in several months. This fic will only be one more chapter after this one. It's not that difficult to wrap this up with a cherry of tragedy on top (just difficult to make the right words come, urgh!) With that in mind, I'm gonna skip the vast majority of the Soul Eater canon material that would show up here and jump into things _in medias res_ to give this a succinct final stretch.

* * *

**Chapter 9**

**Medusa's Plan! To the Kishin's Prison?**

So much had happened so quickly. Up until the night of the DWMA's gala, Alphonse had thought Ed… _Rasa_… was doing much better. Though the blond had never showed the faintest hint of remembering who he had been, he'd been pleasant to Al, even _kind_. But that had all changed in an instant, like an actor in a play taking off his mask. As soon as Doctor Medusa revealed herself to be a _witch_, Rasa had run to her side, calling her _"Mother" _affectionately. Hearing his brother say something so deluded to the woman who had destroyed him would have twisted Al's intestines into knots, if he'd had any.

Medusa and her "son" had hastily taken their leave after that, and only by the intervention of the DWMA's zombie teacher, Sid, had Soul, Maka, Professor Stein, Spirit, Black Star, Tsubaki, Death the Kid, Liz, Patty, and Al escaped from a spell that, moments after their rapid departure (straight down), had sealed everyone else inside the room where the gala was being held. Which meant, in no uncertain terms, that stopping Medusa and her cohorts was up to the ten of them.

As they stood in the bowels of the DWMA's deepest dungeon, a place that Al had only just learned was the prison of a demonic being called a kishin, the witch herself slithered out of the shadows to greet them.

"Where's my brother?" Al demanded at once.

She chuckled with twisted amusement. "Dear little Rasa is further in. He's such an obedient child, and he was ecstatic when I entrusted the Black Blood to him. To think the kishin will be awakened by a naïve little alchemist from another world that I wrapped so easily around my finger – it's laughable!"

"Shut up!" thundered Al. "You evil, _**evil**_ woman! I won't let you use him any more!"

"That's _cute_," she snickered. "You'd better have some actions to back up those words, armor-boy."

Cursing, Stein drew the students and Al in for a huddle and laid out a battle plan. He paired up one team of meister and weapon(s) against one of Medusa's accomplices: Black Star and Tsubaki against Crona, Maka and Soul against Free (who that was, Al didn't know), and Death the Kid and the Thompson sisters against (Al's imaginary stomach did a sickening backflip when he heard the pronouncement) Rasa, leaving Spirit and Stein himself to face Medusa.

The professor gave Alphonse a moment's comforting look, one that Al took to mean, _"When you get to Rasa, Kid will know to let you take over the fight." _Nodding to his students, the stitched-faced man set his jaw. "Ready?"

A moment later, the three teams were darting through Medusa's Vector Arrow attacks. Kid and Black Star made it past the witch with relative ease, Maka barely avoided getting impaled before she broke through, and Al snagged on one or two of the black arrows before he pushed onward to follow the others. At least Medusa didn't strike at their backs as they plunged into the dark corridor from whence she had come. Stein and Spirit immediately kept her too occupied for that. As the suit of armor and the DWMA students pressed forward, Al's thoughts turned to Rasa. For the sake of his brother's memory, he would not let Rasa wake this kishin monster. _Please, let me get to you in time. __**Please!**_

* * *

Crona seemed even more skittish than usual, Rasa noticed. The two brothers and the werewolf named Free had reached the spot where Crona was to remain and fight off pursuers, but the spindly boy stood frozen, knees knocking and teeth chattering. There was no way he could fight in that condition.

"Hold this for a sec," Rasa told Free, handing him the light briefcase that held Mother's precious Black Blood. The werewolf accepted the container, raising an eyebrow as the little blond traipsed back to where Crona trembled.

"You gonna be okay?" asked the younger brother. "Did that dungeon mess with your head too much?"

Crona looked at him with his wide, sad eyes. "It's… it's not that, R-Rasa. I… I think I've f-finally r-realized something."

"And what's that?"

"It's… it's about Lady Medusa."

Rasa's amber eyes narrowed. "What about Mother?"

"She… before tonight, when she came to f-free me, she'd ignored me c-completely. I kn-knew it in my g-gut, but… she really doesn't c-care about me at all, d-does she?"

"Don't be ridiculous!" scoffed Rasa.

"She's never c-cared," protested Crona, sniffling. "Not ever. I've only… only ever been a t-tool to her. After tonight, she'll have d-done what she came here to d-do, and… she won't n-need me anymore." After a solemn pause, the purple-haired meister added, "Or _you_."

_That_ pronouncement took longer to sink in. Free ended the silence by half-barking, "Come on, kid! We should get moving! I smell someone coming!"

But Rasa did not move. He only stared in horror at his elder brother until he found his voice. "What… what do you mean, Crona?"

"Lady Medusa _uses_ people, _always_. And once th-they've served their purpose, she…" He drew a hand across his throat in a slicing motion.

"But Mother wouldn't—"

"It d-doesn't matter," Crona cut in. "Even though I'm… _we're_ her sons, she w-wouldn't hesitate to kill us if we outlive our u-usefulness."

Rasa set his jaw, golden eyes ablaze. Whatever was going on in Crona's head, it was a distraction. He pushed aside all doubt and countered, "Then I'll make sure I'm indispensible to her. You can do what you want, Crona, but I'm going to see this through. I'm going to make Mother proud!" With that, he returned to Free and grabbed back the handle of the briefcase. "All right," he nodded to the werewolf, "let's go!"

* * *

The tunnels seemed never to end. Alphonse ran at top speed after the retreating back of Kid on his rocket-powered skateboard (which Al had to assume was powered by magic, since trying to derive a scientific explanation made his head dizzy). Black Star was just a little ways behind them, and Maka had already dropped back to duel the Demon Swordsman, Crona – a split-second decision that had thrown all their other plans awry. For Ed's sake, Al hoped Maka wouldn't have to kill Crona. However confused Rasa might be, Al had witnessed firsthand how fiercely protective of a brother the blond still was. If Crona was killed, that could destroy any hope Al had of reforging a connection with his elder brother.

Then again, maybe there had never been any hope, since Rasa's friendliness to him had only been an act. That thought bit at his soul like an icy wind.

"I can't afford to wait for you, Alphonse!" Kid's voice was getting farther away, Al having been lost in his thoughts.

"Don't worry; I'll catch up!" he called back, quickening his pace. At least this body couldn't get tired. He could push himself to the limit for as long as was necessary. _One foot in front of the other_, he told himself. _Keep running. Don't stop. Faster. Faster. Faster!_

* * *

The waves of madness grew stronger and stronger as death weapon and werewolf drew ever nearer to the kishin's prison. It seemed, however, that Rasa had a higher resistance to the hallucinations produced by the madness than Free did, a realization which made the blond pleased that Medusa had chosen _him_ to carry the Black Blood. She knew what her darling son was capable of and trusted him to get the job done: a rather satisfying prospect.

When they reached their destination at last – a vast, dark chamber that echoed eerily with the clanking of chains – Free fell behind almost immediately, frozen in terror.

"What is-?" Rasa began to ask, but his words caught in his throat as a torrent of cold washed over him. He could swear that ghostly hands were reaching through the floorboards, grasping his ankles, pulling him down, down, melting his flesh and bone into wood. He was falling, falling, falling…

"STOP IT!" The sound of his own timorous voice shook him from the grip of the vision, and he backed away from the spot, panting. Free was strangling himself and crying out like a wounded puppy, but he came 'round once Rasa slapped him across the face a few times. "Get a hold of yourself," the blond chided, not only to his companion, but also to his own mind. The werewolf, somewhat abashed, hardened his resolve and heightened his alertness to their surroundings.

He could make out the kishin's leather-bag container now, suspended by many chains covered with talismans. They were so close now, _so close_. Rasa could almost hear the monster breathing from inside that bag, waiting for the small blond to free him. _Come closer, little boy_, a voice like the faintest wind beckoned. _Come… come closer…_

_I __**am**__ coming, don't worry_, Rasa's thoughts responded. Drawn by the kishin's aura, the young death weapon sprinted, closing the distance between himself and the monster in under ten seconds. No sooner had he done so, however, than Free let out a fierce snarl and rounded to face the double doors by which they had entered. The next moment, that meddlesome Reaper, Lord Death's son, came barreling in on a flying skateboard, followed closely by Black Star. Rasa cursed under his breath. Free wouldn't be able to hold off those two for long, so _he_ would have to act quickly. He set down the briefcase and threw open the lid. There were all the tools he would need: an empty syringe and a canister filled with Black Blood.

After transferring the liquid from canister to syringe, he stood with the giant hypodermic in hand and faced the bag which held the kishin's shriveled form. Well, it wouldn't be shriveled for long. Rasa drew back his arm to thrust the needle into the bag, but something he didn't anticipate intervened.

Or, rather, some_one_.

The clang of metal resounded throughout the chamber as his arm hit steel and rebounded. The syringe landed on the floor, though, by some dark miracle, the glass remained intact as it rolled away. Hissing, Rasa whirled on the piece of scum that had dared even attempt to stop him from completing his mission and found… Alphonse Elric. _Damn, he must have been behind Black Star. I should have known. No matter…_

"If you want to free the kishin, you'll have to go through me." There was no gentleness in the metallic voice now, only solemn acceptance. It was clear that the armored warrior would offer no more mercy, no more hesitancy.

For a moment, he hesitated. This delusion of Alphonse's that Rasa had been his brother had created a strange friendship between armored soul and kishin egg. True, most of it had been a façade on Rasa's part, just a cog in the gears of his mother plan, but… not all of it had been fake. A fool Alphonse might be, but he had never been cruel to Rasa, never looked at him with eyes this cold. Did that mean _he_ had been pretending, too?

_Yes_, the madness whispered in his mind. _Everyone lies. Everyone except Mother. We can trust no one but her. Go on, now. Kill this human. Kill him!_

All of this deliberation happened in an instant, and then it was decided. Alphonse Elric was just another obstacle, just another weakling whose soul he would consume. The very thought made him salivate, and he licked his lips greedily.

"Is that so?" he intoned, his words coming out as a blend of a purr and a snarl. "Fine by me."

* * *

A/N: Almost there. Just one more chapter! (I'm ready to FINISH this thing!)

**OUTTAKES TIME:**

**Crona**: "She… before tonight, when she came to f-free me, she'd ignored me c-completely. I kn-knew it in my g-gut, but… she really doesn't c-care about me at all, d-does she?"

**Rasa**: "Pretty much. Sucks to be you."

TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALA TRALALALALALALALALALALA TRALALALALAAAAAAAAAAAA

**Kid**: "I can't afford to wait for you, Alphonse!"

**Al**: "Aw, _come on_! :C This armor is _heavy_!"


End file.
